Re: Truly decentralised use of git?

From: Santi Béjar <santi@agolina.net>
Date: Jul 14, 2009, 09:22 UTC
Message-ID: <adf1fd3d0907140222t6762d4f7s417f56905492cbba@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <200907140811.24174.Karlis.Repsons@gmail.com>

2009/7/14 Kārlis Repsons <karlis.repsons@gmail.com>:

> Hello,
> git is just great with its possibility of decentralised using, but how can it
> be done, given, that participants are all across the internet? IPv6? How is
> it done with kernel?

I don't think "truly decentralised" is what you want[1]. For me, truly decentralised is when all the repositories are equal, and in particular there is no central repository to sync with.

Normally there is a "social" central repository, be it controlled by one person (like the linux kernel) or by multiple people (like the gnome git repositories). It does not mean it is not decentralised, many people can (and do) have repositories spread across the internet and the central repository can be moved from one place to another.

In a "truly decentralised" setup, every repository can sync any other repository. So you just provide a public repository and sync with the rest of repositories. It does not scale with a large number of repositories, so it is easier just to declare some of the repositories as central (like the Linus' repository and the subsystem repositories).

In the linux kernel setup, there is a central repository, Linus' repository, with its public repository at kernel.org, and the subsystem repositories (x86, mm, usb,...) normally at kernel.org but they can be anywhere else. Everybody syncs with Linus' repository, and when you work in a specific subsystem you sync with the central one and/or the subsystem repository.

HTH, Santi