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Re: How is git used as other than the project's version control?

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
Apr 28, 2009, 01:44 UTC
Message-ID
<20090428014434.GA6462@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<450196A1AAAE4B42A00A8B27A59278E70AE3EC48@EXCHANGE.trad.tradestation.com>
On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 06:55:38PM -0400, John Dlugosz wrote:
> I'm interested in finding out how people use git "on the side", when it
> is not the project's actual version control system.

Thomas already mentioned using "git diff" separate from a git repository; I find that "git diff --color-words" is much nicer than "wdiff", which does something similar (though I rarely use it outside of a repo only because I put _everything_ into git :) ).

One of the nice things about git (and other distributed VCS's) is that creating a repo is very lightweight. If I am going to write a patch for some other software, the first thing I'll do after untarring it is "git init; git add .; git commit -m import". So it kind of blurs the concept of "what is the project's actual version control system" as you wrote above. If you consider the project to be my patch, it _is_ the VCS. Even though upstream may not be using it.

And of course, if I am going to do multiple patches, then I may convert and track upstream's history via git.

If you are looking for exotic uses of git, you may be interested in Dscho's "Using Git For What It Is Not Intended" contest:

  http://search.gmane.org/?query=UGFWIINI
-Peff
Previous: Thomas AdamNext: Andreas Ericsson
Message 5 of 9 in “How is git used as other than the project's version control?”
  1. John DlugoszApr 27, 2009
  2. Thomas AdamApr 27, 2009
  3. John DlugoszApr 27, 2009
  4. Thomas AdamApr 27, 2009
  5. Jeff KingApr 28, 2009
  6. Andreas EricssonApr 28, 2009
  7. Octavio AlvarezApr 28, 2009
  8. Mike RalphsonApr 28, 2009
  9. Matthieu MoyApr 28, 2009

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