A Big Push For Git

There is a better way

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For about 12 months now, I've been running a Git source code repository on my Ubuntu server, and it's been working out great.

I had a small Subversion repository prior to that but decided to completely nuke it and start from scratch, so I can't talk about migration issues. What I can talk about is my fellow developers' attitudes when they found out that I was running a DVCS in a development shop with one seat, and a conventional client-server continuous-integration environment.

Hilarity:

• "DVCSes are for big teams!"
• "DVCSes are for people with laptops who get disconnected!"

Incredulity:

• "But there's nothing wrong with Subversion!"
• "Does it even work with a CI server?"

I understand why the new generation of version-control systems (Mercurial, Git, et al) feel the need to differentiate themselves from the previous generation, with that big 'D'. And yes, they do support a "highly-distributed" mode of operation very well. But this emphatically does not rule out using them in small, well-connected environments. Here's the silver bullet that shoots down the first 3 objections listed above:

With a DVCS, I can commit as many times as I like without those changes:

• Being seen by anyone else
• Triggering a build on my CI server

It doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you're working on a big change, it's really nice to be able to save incremental commits - possibly even (gasp!) broken commits without breaking the CI build. Your commit comment can summarise where you are in your refactor, and rolling back a failed experiment is trivially easy. When you are completely happy, just push the changes to the build box.

Please don't knock DVCSes until you've experienced the liberating yet confidence-inspiring feeling of local-commits combined with a continuous-integration server running a full build-and-test on "pushed" code. It really is the best of both worlds.

And as for toolchain support, Hudson's Git support works great, and I note that Atlassian's super-powerful Bamboo has added Git support. On the client side, I'm using the EGit plugin with good results - operationally, it feels almost exactly the same as Subversion, just with that extra all-important push option when it's time to show the build-box some new code.

As an aside, I plan on documenting the entire procedure for setting up a Git code repository and CI (Hudson) build server on the Ubuntu Server platform - for my reference as much as anything. Watch this space.