# [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008

20 messages from 2008-08-31 to 2008-10-14. Participants: Jakub Narebski, Scott Chacon, Felipe Contreras, David John, Karl Hasselström, Petr Baudis, Christian Jaeger, Eric Bowman, Tor Arvid Lund, Felipe Carvalho Oliveira, Marc-André Lureau, Jeff King.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/15304

## Jakub Narebski, 2008-08-31 21:29

Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <200808312329.17312.jnareb@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200808312329.17312.jnareb%40gmail.com

```
Hi all,

We would like to ask you a few questions about your use of the Git
version control system. This survey is mainly to understand who is
using Git, how and why.

The results will be published to the Git wiki and discussed on the git
mailing list.

The survey would be open from 1 September till 10 October.

Please devote a few minutes of your time to fill this simple
questionnaire, it will help a lot the git community to understand your
needs, what you like of git, and of course what you don't like  of it.

The survey can be found here:
  http://www.survs.com/survey?id=M3PIVU72&channel=2WXE4BVTW8

-- 
Git Development Community

```

## Scott Chacon, 2008-09-01 05:13

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <d411cc4a0808312213k5414b0e2s82d122cf37fea778@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/d411cc4a0808312213k5414b0e2s82d122cf37fea778%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <200808312329.17312.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
This got on Hacker News and got a few comments on the length of the
survey.  It did take me a pretty good amount of time to do.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=291560

I'm afraid the length and time required to fill it out will skew the
answers away from beginning type users, even though a lot of the
questions are aimed at them.

It may be a good idea next year to do an adaptive survey, where there
are a few of the basic questions that could be answered in a few
minutes and if the user is a beginner it stops there, if they are more
advanced, it asks more advanced questions. I would be happy to help
set this up if there is interest, whoever is in charge of this.

Scott


On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 2:29 PM, Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> We would like to ask you a few questions about your use of the Git
> version control system. This survey is mainly to understand who is
> using Git, how and why.
>
> The results will be published to the Git wiki and discussed on the git
> mailing list.
>
> The survey would be open from 1 September till 10 October.
>
> Please devote a few minutes of your time to fill this simple
> questionnaire, it will help a lot the git community to understand your
> needs, what you like of git, and of course what you don't like  of it.
>
> The survey can be found here:
>  http://www.survs.com/survey?id=M3PIVU72&channel=2WXE4BVTW8
>
> --
> Git Development Community
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

```

## Felipe Contreras, 2008-09-01 07:10

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <94a0d4530809010010yd46f2fevedac2682a330b8e2@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/94a0d4530809010010yd46f2fevedac2682a330b8e2%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <d411cc4a0808312213k5414b0e2s82d122cf37fea778@mail.gmail.com>

```
On Mon, Sep 1, 2008 at 8:13 AM, Scott Chacon <schacon@gmail.com> wrote:
> This got on Hacker News and got a few comments on the length of the
> survey.  It did take me a pretty good amount of time to do.
>
> http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=291560
>
> I'm afraid the length and time required to fill it out will skew the
> answers away from beginning type users, even though a lot of the
> questions are aimed at them.
>
> It may be a good idea next year to do an adaptive survey, where there
> are a few of the basic questions that could be answered in a few
> minutes and if the user is a beginner it stops there, if they are more
> advanced, it asks more advanced questions. I would be happy to help
> set this up if there is interest, whoever is in charge of this.

Well, the changes are saved even if you don't finish it, right?

So you can fill it in different sessions.

-- 
Felipe Contreras

```

## David John, 2008-09-01 07:18

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <48BB9742.3000109@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/48BB9742.3000109%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <200808312329.17312.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
It's too long IMO. I gave up on it half way. Do you really need to know
the frequency of use of _each_ command? :(

Jakub Narebski wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> We would like to ask you a few questions about your use of the Git
> version control system. This survey is mainly to understand who is
> using Git, how and why.
>
> The results will be published to the Git wiki and discussed on the git
> mailing list.
>
> The survey would be open from 1 September till 10 October.
>
> Please devote a few minutes of your time to fill this simple
> questionnaire, it will help a lot the git community to understand your
> needs, what you like of git, and of course what you don't like  of it.
>
> The survey can be found here:
>   http://www.survs.com/survey?id=M3PIVU72&channel=2WXE4BVTW8
>
>   

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2008-09-01 08:34

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <200809011034.48342.jnareb@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200809011034.48342.jnareb%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <48BB9742.3000109@gmail.com>

```
David John wrote:

> It's too long IMO. I gave up on it half way. Do you really need to know
> the frequency of use of _each_ command? :(

First, there was longer period discussing on git mailing list about
what to put in the survey.  Something like that was requested on git
mailing list; perhaps I was bit overzealous...

Second, you can always _skip_ answering the question.

Last, if you are accessing the survey from the same computer, and you
have cookies enabled, you can always return and finish/correct survey
later.  Perhaps that should be stated upfront, and not only at the end
9after submitting survey)...

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland

```

## Karl Hasselström, 2008-09-01 09:59

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <20080901095958.GA20588@diana.vm.bytemark.co.uk>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20080901095958.GA20588%40diana.vm.bytemark.co.uk
In-Reply-To: <200809011034.48342.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
On 2008-09-01 10:34:47 +0200, Jakub Narebski wrote:

> Second, you can always _skip_ answering the question.
>
> Last, if you are accessing the survey from the same computer, and
> you have cookies enabled, you can always return and finish/correct
> survey later. Perhaps that should be stated upfront, and not only at
> the end 9after submitting survey)...

One option to keep in mind for next year could be to make a two-page
survey: first a short page with the most important stuff, then a
second page with the rest. The second page should begin with something
like

  Thank you for filling out the first part of the survey. If you have
  the time, you may fill out this second part as well, but it is _not_
  required; you may just close this window if you like.

-- 
Karl Hasselström, kha@treskal.com
      www.treskal.com/kalle

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2008-09-01 14:48

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008 has started
Message-ID: <200809011648.14308.jnareb@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200809011648.14308.jnareb%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <20080901143718.GG10360@machine.or.cz>

```
On Mon, 1 Sep 2008, Petr Baudis wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 01, 2008 at 01:05:35PM +0200, Jakub Narebski wrote:
> >
> > Thank you very much for posting announcement about Git User's Survey at 
> > http://repo.or.cz.  Could you please add similar announcement somewhere 
> > in the first page of Git Homepage (http://git.or.cz)?  Something like:
> > ---
> > <strong>
> > <a href="http://www.survs.com/survey?id=M3PIVU72&channel=2WXE4BVTW8">The 
> > Git User's Survey 2008</a> is up!
> > 
> > Please devote a few minutes of your time to fill this simple 
> > questionnaire.  It will help the Git community to understand your 
> > needs, what you like of  Git, and, of course, what you don't like of 
> > it.
> > </strong>
> > ---
> > (you can use http://tinyurl.com/GitSurvey2008 instead, if you prefer).
> 
>   oh - around the time you wrote this mail, I've been doing just that.
> ;-)  I kind of prefer my wording, though; if you mind, I have no problem
> replacing it with yours, though.

Ah, I see (now that I force-refreshed the page ;-))
---
<b>The <a href="">Git User's Survey 2008</a> is up!</b> Please take
a short while to answer the questions so that we better understand how
do you use Git and improve it even more.
---

That is I think even better wording. Would you mind if I stole^W
borrowed it, and use as proposal when sending requests for adding
Git User's Survey 2008 announcements to other git related sites,
and other git hosting sites (git.kernel.org, GitHub, Gitorious,
{gitweb,cgit}.freedesktop.org,...)?

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland

```

## Petr Baudis, 2008-09-01 14:51

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008 has started
Message-ID: <20080901145155.GH10360@machine.or.cz>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20080901145155.GH10360%40machine.or.cz
In-Reply-To: <200809011648.14308.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
On Mon, Sep 01, 2008 at 04:48:13PM +0200, Jakub Narebski wrote:
> ---
> <b>The <a href="">Git User's Survey 2008</a> is up!</b> Please take
> a short while to answer the questions so that we better understand how
> do you use Git and improve it even more.
> ---
> 
> That is I think even better wording. Would you mind if I stole^W
> borrowed it, and use as proposal when sending requests for adding
> Git User's Survey 2008 announcements to other git related sites,
> and other git hosting sites (git.kernel.org, GitHub, Gitorious,
> {gitweb,cgit}.freedesktop.org,...)?

Of course I wouldn't mind. :-)

				Petr "Pasky" Baudis

```

## Christian Jaeger, 2008-09-03 12:20

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <48BE8109.9030701@jaeger.mine.nu>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/48BE8109.9030701%40jaeger.mine.nu
In-Reply-To: <200809011034.48342.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
Jakub Narebski wrote:
> Last, if you are accessing the survey from the same computer, and you
> have cookies enabled, you can always return and finish/correct survey
> later.  Perhaps that should be stated upfront, and not only at the end
> 9after submitting survey)...

Hm, I've got cookies disabled usually; the survey had a link at the 
bottom which was a javascript link, and it lead me to a screen asking me 
for my email and a button "inform about news" or some such (kind of 
'spammy' purpose only I guess). So I'm not sure whether my entries got 
saved at all?

I've found the many questions interesting as it showed me quite a number 
of interesting commands I didn't know about yet (so I said "never" to 
all of them, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful to me, just that I 
didn't know about them!):

git add -u / -A

git log --graph

git relink

git request-pull

(git show-branch)

(git stash --keep-index)

(git whatchanged)


Christian.

```

## Eric Bowman, 2008-09-03 12:40

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <48BE85D4.3060100@boboco.ie>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/48BE85D4.3060100%40boboco.ie
In-Reply-To: <48BE8109.9030701@jaeger.mine.nu>

```
Christian Jaeger wrote:
> Jakub Narebski wrote:
>> Last, if you are accessing the survey from the same computer, and you
>> have cookies enabled, you can always return and finish/correct survey
>> later.  Perhaps that should be stated upfront, and not only at the end
>> 9after submitting survey)...
>
> Hm, I've got cookies disabled usually; the survey had a link at the
> bottom which was a javascript link, and it lead me to a screen asking
> me for my email and a button "inform about news" or some such (kind of
> 'spammy' purpose only I guess). So I'm not sure whether my entries got
> saved at all?
>
> I've found the many questions interesting as it showed me quite a
> number of interesting commands I didn't know about yet (so I said
> "never" to all of them, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful to
> me, just that I didn't know about them!):

I wholeheartedly agree -- going in-depth on the survey contents would
make a great beginner -> intermediate git tutorial.  I learned a lot
about what I don't know yet from participating.

-- 
Eric Bowman
Boboco Ltd
ebowman@boboco.ie
http://www.boboco.ie/ebowman/pubkey.pgp
+35318394189/+353872801532

```

## Tor Arvid Lund, 2008-09-03 12:46

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <1a6be5fa0809030546n28e2a1besdc4435e874f2f0f9@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/1a6be5fa0809030546n28e2a1besdc4435e874f2f0f9%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <48BE8109.9030701@jaeger.mine.nu>

```
On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 2:20 PM, Christian Jaeger
<christian@jaeger.mine.nu> wrote:
> I've found the many questions interesting as it showed me quite a number of
> interesting commands I didn't know about yet (so I said "never" to all of
> them, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful to me, just that I didn't
> know about them!):

I agree 100% :-)

-Tor Arvid-

```

## Felipe Contreras, 2008-09-03 16:49

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <94a0d4530809030949v7c8c6ec4uc60bc873a40637d0@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/94a0d4530809030949v7c8c6ec4uc60bc873a40637d0%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <1a6be5fa0809030546n28e2a1besdc4435e874f2f0f9@mail.gmail.com>

```
On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 3:46 PM, Tor Arvid Lund <torarvid@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 2:20 PM, Christian Jaeger
> <christian@jaeger.mine.nu> wrote:
>> I've found the many questions interesting as it showed me quite a number of
>> interesting commands I didn't know about yet (so I said "never" to all of
>> them, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful to me, just that I didn't
>> know about them!):
>
> I agree 100% :-)

Me too.

-- 
Felipe Contreras

```

## Felipe Carvalho Oliveira, 2008-09-03 22:47

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <a2075f4c0809031547l4e87da1bifd8187632a3f829e@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/a2075f4c0809031547l4e87da1bifd8187632a3f829e%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <200808312329.17312.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
Great survey. Just filled the questionnaire.

Felipe(Brazil)

```

## Marc-André Lureau, 2008-09-05 13:46

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <e29894ca0809050646g2f198890le2312d065696d1dd@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/e29894ca0809050646g2f198890le2312d065696d1dd%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <94a0d4530809030949v7c8c6ec4uc60bc873a40637d0@mail.gmail.com>

```
Hi

On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 7:49 PM, Felipe Contreras
<felipe.contreras@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 3:46 PM, Tor Arvid Lund <torarvid@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 2:20 PM, Christian Jaeger
>> <christian@jaeger.mine.nu> wrote:
>>> I've found the many questions interesting as it showed me quite a number of
>>> interesting commands I didn't know about yet (so I said "never" to all of
>>> them, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful to me, just that I didn't
>>> know about them!):
>>
>> I agree 100% :-)
>
> Me too.

+Same for me. I am looking around for more information about some
commands/usage, but this is not always friendly with the man pages.

May I suggest to add a question next year: which email client do you
use to handle git attachements (if you do) ?

I cannot find yet a good workflow with either mutt, gmail or evolution
over imap.

If somebody could explain how they handle the git send-mail patches
they recieve, I would be thankful. How do you create .mbox files? What
is your workflow when you deal with mails?

Thank you for this great survey, 2008 edition !

-- 
Marc-André Lureau

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2008-09-05 14:10

Subject: What do you use to send git patches? (was: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008)
Message-ID: <m3d4jipttz.fsf_-_@localhost.localdomain>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/m3d4jipttz.fsf_-_%40localhost.localdomain
In-Reply-To: <e29894ca0809050646g2f198890le2312d065696d1dd@mail.gmail.com>

```
"Marc-André Lureau" <marcandre.lureau@gmail.com> writes:

> May I suggest to add a question next year: which email client do you
> use to handle git attachements (if you do) ?
> 
> I cannot find yet a good workflow with either mutt, gmail or evolution
> over imap.
> 
> If somebody could explain how they handle the git send-mail patches
> they recieve, I would be thankful. How do you create .mbox files? What
> is your workflow when you deal with mails?

I almost always use git-format-patch to generate patches (some people
use git-show or git-diff for proof-of-concept patches), and either use
git-send-email (I have sendmail configured to send mails via GMail,
but my computer is single-user machine; you can try sendemail.smpt*
options instead, if you have appropriate Perl modules installed), or
use KMail: Message > Insert file, ensuring that in Options I have Word
wrapping turned off.

In some rare case I used 'stg mail' (also via properly configured
sendmail).

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland
ShadeHawk on #git

```

## Petr Baudis, 2008-09-05 14:12

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <20080905141255.GZ10544@machine.or.cz>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20080905141255.GZ10544%40machine.or.cz
In-Reply-To: <e29894ca0809050646g2f198890le2312d065696d1dd@mail.gmail.com>

```
On Fri, Sep 05, 2008 at 04:46:02PM +0300, Marc-André Lureau wrote:
> If somebody could explain how they handle the git send-mail patches
> they recieve, I would be thankful. How do you create .mbox files? What
> is your workflow when you deal with mails?

  In mutt, I tag the mails with patches, ;C them to an empty file and
git am the file.

				Petr "Pasky" Baudis

```

## Jeff King, 2008-09-05 14:45

Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <20080905144543.GA25022@coredump.intra.peff.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20080905144543.GA25022%40coredump.intra.peff.net
In-Reply-To: <e29894ca0809050646g2f198890le2312d065696d1dd@mail.gmail.com>

```
On Fri, Sep 05, 2008 at 04:46:02PM +0300, Marc-André Lureau wrote:

> I cannot find yet a good workflow with either mutt, gmail or evolution
> over imap.
> 
> If somebody could explain how they handle the git send-mail patches
> they recieve, I would be thankful. How do you create .mbox files? What
> is your workflow when you deal with mails?

When I receive patches via mutt, I usually apply them with this:

  macro index,pager A '<pipe-message>git<space>am<enter>'

which will apply in your current directory. For my git folder, I use a
hook to always apply to my git repo:

  folder-hook git macro index,pager A
  '<pipe-message>cd<space>$HOME/compile/git<space>&&<space>git<space>am<enter>'

If there are several patches in a series, I may pull them into an mbox
and apply separately:

  [in mutt]
  T pattern [or tag message individually, or Esc-T to tag thread]
  ;C ~/name-of-patch-topic

  [in another terminal]
  cd /path/to/repo
  git am ~/name-of-patch-topic

To send one or two patches, I create an mbox and then use mutt to send:

  git format-patch -s --stdout "$@" >.mbox
  mutt -f .mbox
  rm -f .mbox

and in my muttrc:

  macro index,pager b ":set edit_headers=yes<enter><resend-message>:set edit_headers=no<enter>"

Hope that helps,

-Peff

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2008-09-06 09:11

Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <200809061111.34219.jnareb@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200809061111.34219.jnareb%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <200808312329.17312.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
Hi all,

We would like to ask you a few questions about your use of the Git
version control system. This survey is mainly to understand who is
using Git, how and why.

The results will be published on the Git Wiki
  http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitSurvey2008
and discussed on the git mailing list.

The survey would be open from 1 September till 10 October.

Please devote a bit of your time to fill this simple questionnaire;
it will help a lot the Git community to understand your needs,
what you like of Git, and of course what you don't like of it.

The survey can be found here:
  http://www.survs.com/survey?id=M3PIVU72&channel=2WXE4BVTW8
  http://tinyurl.com/GitSurvey2008

-- 
Jakub Narebski on behalf of
Git Development Community

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2008-09-08 22:58

Subject: Announcing Git User's Survey 2008
Message-ID: <200809090058.05983.jnareb@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200809090058.05983.jnareb%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <200808312329.17312.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
With 2200+ responses to Git User's Survey 2008 
  http://tinyurl.com/GitSurvey2008
I guess it is not that much important to spread the word further.

Nevertheless if you have the ability, please put announcement about
Git User's Survey 2008 (it ends at October 10); for example if you
have a VCS related blog, or know who to contact about putting the
announcement on freedesktop.org web interfaces and git.debian.org,
or can contact local LUG, please do so.

TIA
-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2008-10-14 00:25

Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Git User's Survey 2008 has closed
Message-ID: <200810140225.17131.jnareb@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200810140225.17131.jnareb%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <200808312329.17312.jnareb@gmail.com>

```
Hi all,

Git User's Survey 2008 ended at the end of Monday, 13 October 2008,
around 23:45 CEST (GMT+0200).  

Could you then *take down* notice about Git User's Survey 2008,
and/or perhaps announce that it is closed?


Beginnings of Survey summary should be available soon at 
  http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitSurvey2008

Currently you can get there raw data (individual responses).  One can 
find there also to online analysis (on Survs.com) and beginnings of 
partial survey summary (send to git mailing list).
-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland

```
