From: Gerhard Wiesinger Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:41:56 GMT Subject: Re: Metadata and checkin file date Message-ID: In-Reply-To: On Tue, 27 Apr 2010, Jakub Narebski wrote: > Gerhard Wiesinger writes: > >> Hello, >> >> I'm new to git and I'm looking for the following features: >> 1.) Metadata for >> a.) directory versioning (e.g. add/rm, mv) >> b.) rights (basic: chmod, chow, chgrp, extended: extended >> attributes like ACLs and selinux), necessary for versioning e.g. /etc >> 2.) Original file dates (checkin date) on clone and pull (and not >> checkout date) >> >> Is this possible? Any plans if missing? > > Git is distributed version control system (DVCS), not a backup system. > It is used mainly for distributed development of programs. Therefore > it supports natively only those parts of metadata that make sense for > VCS, namely symlinks (with workaround for filesystems that do not have > support for symbolic links) and the executable permission for files. > > File ownership does not make sense for VCS, as other people that clone > your repository do not have the same set of users that you have, and > might not have the same set of groups that you have. Neverthemind that > their filesystem might not support notion of file ownership, not only > do not have support for extended attributes and the like. I would suggest that only with special switches like --preserve-chmod --preserver-owner --preserve-group , etc. where one can guarantee user, groups, etc. See also my second post for arguments. > If you really, really need this, you can use additional tools to > preserve metadata, like Metastore or git-cache-meta, or even ready > tools that use Git as bckend like IsiSetup or bup (well, bup use > git package format, not git itself...), see this Git Wiki page: > https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/InterfacesFrontendsAndTools > Will have a look at them. Thnx. Ciao, Gerhard -- http://www.wiesinger.com/