Git : The stupid content tracker
Let me start with an apology if I have, in anyway, hurt your sentiment with your most favorite tool. I know you are using git a lot and loving it like hell. Trust me I love git more than anything. Have you ever noticed the official man page of Git ? It describes git as the stupid content tracker. I was sad too but then I found some interesting things to share with you. Thank me later.
So if you are among the one who is hearing the term git for the first time, don’t worry chap, let me tell you what is git. The official man page describes git as “Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals.” Now what is revision control and why it is said as content tracker and most importantly why it is stupid? Wait… wait…wait bro. Lot of questions. Let me tell you where did it all started?
Back in 2002 people were happy with a proprietary source-control management (SCM) system named bitkeeper. But when Larry McVoy, had taken up free use of the product, many developers of the Linux Kernel decided not to access bitkeeper anymore. This led to create another version-control system, Mercurial. However Linux god Linus Torvalds was thinking something else.
Linus Torvalds wanted a distributed source code versioning system like bitkeeper that could scale independently, patch a system in no time and sync with fellow kernel developers smoothly. None of the open source SCM was able to meet this criteria. This led to the start of a project in 2003, 3rd April and on 6th April it became self hosting and buzz in the market. But naming was the more fun than anything else.
Torvalds sarcastically quipped about the name git (which means “unpleasant person” in British English Slang): “I’m an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First ‘Linux’, now ‘git’.” The man page describes Git as “the stupid content tracker”. The read-me file of the source code elaborates further :
“git” can mean anything, depending on your mood.
- Random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a mispronunciation of “get” may or may not be relevant.
- Stupid. Contemptible and despicable. Simple. Take your pick from the dictionary of slang.
- “Global information tracker”: you’re in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- “Goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t”: when it breaks.
Monotone and Bitkeeper design inspired the architecture and design principles of git while the criteria of Linus Torvalds made it so superb and powerful. The purpose was always to keep it the distributed software configuration management or source code management and keep it open source. The centralized version controlling had always the problem of single point of failure which is fatal to rely and deliver a enterprise level business solution.
Git has two repositories, one of which is stored in a server and the other is in a local repository which is stored in the computer of each developer. This means that the code is not just stored in a central server, but the full copy of the code is present in all the developers’ computers. Git is a Distributed Version Control System since the code is present in every developer’s computer removing any chance of single point of failure. It tracks every changes of every developer for every system and creates an consistent update leveraging the scalable versioning of your software. So, Git is not actually just a stupid content tracker. It does more.
I will come up with more article to explain the concept of remote and local repositories and the closer view of working principle of git. Till then take care and never mind.
