Re: concerns about git

From: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>
Date: Oct 13, 2008, 18:19 UTC
Message-ID: <20081013181941.GT4856@spearce.org>
In-Reply-To: <19959918.post@talk.nabble.com>

deepwinter <deepwinter@winterroot.net> wrote:

Show 13 quoted lines

> 
> i've been looking into using git for some version control and it looks
> great.. except for 1 thing that really disturbs me.  why is the .git
> repository stored within the working copy?  this is seems like a recipe for
> accidental deletion.  if you are an individual using version control lets
> say for just your own work, there is a lot of security that is gained from
> at least having your repository within a different directory, or better on a
> different partition.  this ensures that accidental deletions or hard drive
> crashes are less likely to result in loosing the ENTIRE project!  of course,
> accidentally deleting your working copy is stupid, but it does happen.   git
> seems to offer no protection against this kind of mistake for the individual
> coder.. or is there some way to have git put the actual repository files in
> a different directory?  (can't find info on that)

Because every working copy is equal. They all have a copy of the project's metadata in the .git/ directory.

If you want a backup, create one with clone and push to it every so often, e.g.:

  # one time setup
  $ git clone --bare . /some/other/drive/project.git
  $ git remote add backup /some/other/drive/project.git

  # then every once in a while, or from a cron job
  $ git push --all backup

Of course since Git is distributed you can you use this same approach to make backups to other systems. You can even edit the .git/config to give the [remote "backup"] section more than one url line, so that "git push --all backup" will send updated copies to multiple locations at once.

Who needs a central repository like SVN or CVS when you can have 3 or 4, on just as many disks, in different buildings, and possibly different parts of the world. Yes, I keep my real work that I care about backed up under different providers, with their data centers located in different countries. And of course extra copies locally, in case the 'net is down.

-- 
Shawn.