# File archiver using git 4 messages from 2006-08-27 to 2006-08-28. Participants: Matt McCutchen, Grzegorz Kulewski, Jakub Narebski. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/5407 ## Matt McCutchen, 2006-08-27 13:10 Subject: File archiver using git Message-ID: <3bbc18d20608270610o102968d2kd340d40843262dc5@mail.gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/3bbc18d20608270610o102968d2kd340d40843262dc5%40mail.gmail.com ``` Dear git people, You might like the two attached scripts that I wrote around git to pack file trees containing lots of redundancy into very small packages. For example, if I have ten slightly different versions of a piece of software because I didn't use version control, I can use gitar to compress them together. Matt ``` ## Grzegorz Kulewski, 2006-08-27 13:31 Subject: Re: File archiver using git Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Pine.LNX.4.63.0608271528130.8018%40alpha.polcom.net In-Reply-To: <3bbc18d20608270610o102968d2kd340d40843262dc5@mail.gmail.com> ``` On Sun, 27 Aug 2006, Matt McCutchen wrote: > Dear git people, > > You might like the two attached scripts that I wrote around git to > pack file trees containing lots of redundancy into very small > packages. For example, if I have ten slightly different versions of a > piece of software because I didn't use version control, I can use > gitar to compress them together. Does it (and GIT in general) work ok with file permisions, ownership, soft and hard links, named sockets, device files and similar "strange" filesystem objects? Do I need any options to GIT to make it work with them? Can I for example securely backup or even version-control /etc directory? Grzegorz Kulewski ``` ## Jakub Narebski, 2006-08-27 15:34 Subject: Re: File archiver using git Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/ecse17%242q3%241%40sea.gmane.org In-Reply-To: ``` Grzegorz Kulewski wrote: > On Sun, 27 Aug 2006, Matt McCutchen wrote: >> Dear git people, >> >> You might like the two attached scripts that I wrote around git to >> pack file trees containing lots of redundancy into very small >> packages. For example, if I have ten slightly different versions of a >> piece of software because I didn't use version control, I can use >> gitar to compress them together. > > Does it (and GIT in general) work ok with file permisions, ownership, soft > and hard links, named sockets, device files and similar "strange" > filesystem objects? Do I need any options to GIT to make it work with > them? Git in general only preserves executable bit, deals with symlinks, hardlinks after a fashion (stored once, but unpacked/checked out as separate files, not hardlinked), and does not deal with other "strange" filesystem objects as far as I know. -- Jakub Narebski Warsaw, Poland ShadeHawk on #git ``` ## Matt McCutchen, 2006-08-28 00:40 Subject: Re: File archiver using git Message-ID: <3bbc18d20608271740m63be7ae9qc49ec944f5131030@mail.gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/3bbc18d20608271740m63be7ae9qc49ec944f5131030%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On 8/27/06, Grzegorz Kulewski wrote: > Does it (and GIT in general) work ok with file permisions, ownership, soft > and hard links, named sockets, device files and similar "strange" > filesystem objects? Do I need any options to GIT to make it work with > them? Git tracks data, not filesystems. That means it doesn't handle any of the things you mentioned except soft links. It doesn't even handle empty directories, though I don't accept the argument that they do not constitute data. If you want to capture a filesystem, I would recommend running "find . -ls" to create a listing file from which everything you mentioned can be reconstructed and then putting the filesystem together with the listing file into git. > Can I for example securely backup or even version-control /etc directory? With the above technique, you can do both. However, if you just want to back up /etc, you might be better served by a backup tool. For example, I use rsnapshot ( http://www.rsnapshot.org/ ). Matt ```