Getting git

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

Nick Farina on git:

In Git there is no “client” and “server”. A repository is a repository, no matter if it’s on my machine, your machine, or Github.com.

Each repository lives in a single hidden folder called .git. This is in stark contrast to Subversion which infects your source tree with little .svn folders everywhere.

The .git “repository” is more than just metadata and bookkeeping. It’s everything. All of your source, all your changes, all your branches, all your commit notes with swear words and in-jokes.

Go ahead, delete your index.html. As long as your .git folder is intact, you can reconstruct it:

~/mysite$ rm index.html
~/mysite$ git checkout — .
~/mysite$ ls
index.html
That would work even if you’d deleted a bunch of subfolders and huge files and whatever. Poof, it’s all back.

This explains why, when you “checkout” (clone) the Ruby on Rails repository from Github, it takes a surprisingly long time. You’re downloading onto your machine, into your new rails/.git folder, the entire history of Ruby on Rails. Every tiny change from David’s initial commit in 2004, it’s all sitting there on your disk.

This troubled me greatly at first. It’s so inefficient! My precious disk space!

And I can only say that disk space turned out to be a non-issue. But it took me some time. Maybe go take a walk outside, look at some trees, and come back later when you’ve accepted it.