Re: GIT push to sftp (feature request)

From: Matthieu Moy <matthieu.moy@imag.fr>
Date: Aug 5, 2007, 22:20 UTC
Message-ID: <vpqir7t8vy0.fsf@bauges.imag.fr>
In-Reply-To: <46a038f90708051412p722aa906v73e986a805f1558b@mail.gmail.com>

"Martin Langhoff" <martin.langhoff@gmail.com> writes:

Show 6 quoted lines

> Git tries to be smart in at least 2 ways that don't work with dump
> protocols: it works locklessly (yet it performs atomic updates) and it
> sends only the objects needed over the wire (saving a lot of
> bandwidth).
>
> Using dumb protocols it's impossible to do either.

That's not exactly true. You can't be as efficient with dumb protocols than you are with a dedicated protocol (something with some intelligence on both sides), but at least the second point you mention can be achieved with a dumb protocol, and bzr is a proof of existance. To read over HTTP, it uses ranges request, and to push over ftp/sftp/webdav, it appends new data to existing files (its ancestor, GNU Arch, also had a way to be network-efficient on dumb protocols).

Regarding atomic and lock-less updates, I believe this is implementable too as soon as you have an atomit "rename" in the protocol. But here, bzr isn't a proof of existance, it does locking.

(BTW, about bzr, it also has a dedicated server now)

-- 
Matthieu