Many hyperlinks are disabled.
Use anonymous login
to enable hyperlinks.
Overview
Comment: | Add the Why SQLite Does Not Use Git document. (Cherrypick from trunk) |
---|---|
Downloads: | Tarball | ZIP archive | SQL archive |
Timelines: | family | ancestors | descendants | both | version-3.23 |
Files: | files | file ages | folders |
SHA3-256: |
50c596f53674c77250b7ed34e86d8555 |
User & Date: | drh 2018-04-10 00:24:12 |
Context
2018-04-10
| ||
00:29 | Fix a typo in the whynotgit.html document. Leaf check-in: 737022637a user: drh tags: version-3.23 | |
00:24 | Add the Why SQLite Does Not Use Git document. (Cherrypick from trunk) check-in: 50c596f536 user: drh tags: version-3.23 | |
00:21 | Add the Why SQLite Does Not Use Git document. check-in: 1b4a90faa0 user: drh tags: trunk | |
2018-04-09
| ||
22:34 | Fix typos in cpu.html. check-in: fc3877b543 user: drh tags: version-3.23 | |
Changes
Added pages/whynotgit.in.
1 +<title>Why SQLite Does Not Use Git?</title> 2 + 3 +<table_of_contents> 4 + 5 +<h1>Introduction</h1> 6 + 7 +<p> 8 +SQLite does not use the 9 +[https://git-scm.org|Git] version control system. 10 +SQLite uses 11 +[https://fossil-scm.org/|Fossil] instead. 12 +Fossil and Git are both block-chain version-control systems. 13 +They are both "distributed". They both store content has a 14 +sequence of immutable check-ins identified by a cryptographic 15 +hash. Git is wildly popular, to the point that many younger 16 +developers are familiar with nothing else. And yet, the developers 17 +of SQLite prefer Fossil. This article tries to explain why. 18 + 19 +<h1>A Few Reasons Why SQLite Does Not Use Git</h1> 20 + 21 +<ol> 22 +<li><p> 23 +With Git, it is very difficult to find the successors (decendents) of 24 +a check-in. 25 + 26 +<p> 27 +Git allows you to go backwards in time. Given the latest 28 +check-in on a branch, Git lets you see all the ancestors of that 29 +check-in. But Git makes it very difficult to move in the other 30 +direction. Given some historical check-in, it is quite challenging 31 +in Git to find out what came next. It can be done, but it is sufficiently 32 +difficult and slow that nobody ever does it. There is no button in 33 +GitHub that shows the descendents of a check-in. 34 + 35 +<p> 36 +This is a deal-breaker, a show-stopper. The principle maintainer 37 +of SQLite cannot function effectively without being able to view 38 +the successors of a check-in. This one issue is sufficient reason 39 +to not use Git, in the view of the designer of SQLite. 40 + 41 +<li><p> 42 +The mental model for Git is needlessly complex and consequently 43 +distracts attention from software under development. A user of Git 44 +needs to keep all of the following in mind: 45 +<ol type='a'> 46 +<li> The working directory 47 +<li> The "index" or staging area 48 +<li> The local head 49 +<li> The local copy of the remote head 50 +<li> The actual remote head 51 +</ol> 52 +<p> 53 +Git contains commands (or options on commands) for moving and 54 +comparing content between all of these locations. 55 + 56 +<p>In contrast, 57 +Fossil users only need to think about their working directory and 58 +the check-in they are working on. That is 60% less distraction. 59 +Every developer has a finite number of brain-cycles. Fossil 60 +requires fewer brain-cycles to operate, thus freeing up 61 +intellectual resources to focus on the software under development. 62 + 63 +<li><p> 64 +Git does not track branch history. This makes review of historical 65 +branches tedious. 66 + 67 +<p> 68 +As an example, consider display of a single historical 69 +branch of SQLite as rendered by GitHub and by Fossil: 70 + 71 +<ul> 72 +<li><b>GitHub:</b> [https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/commits/prefer-coroutine-sort-subquery] 73 +<li><b>Fossil:</b> [https://sqlite.org/src/timeline?r=prefer-coroutine-sort-subquery] 74 +</ul> 75 + 76 +<p> 77 +The Fossil view clearly shows that the branch was eventually merged back into 78 +trunk. It shows where the branch started, and it shows two occasions where changes 79 +on trunk were merged into the branch. GitHub shows none of this. In fact, the 80 +GitHub display is mostly useless in trying to figure out what happened. 81 + 82 +<li><p> 83 +Git lacks native wiki and bug tracking. 84 +If you want these essential features, you have to install additional software 85 +such as GitLab, or else use a third-party service such as GitHub. And even 86 +then, the wiki and bug reports are centralized, not distributed. 87 + 88 +<li><p> 89 +Git requires more administrative support. 90 +Setting up a website for a project to use Git requires a lot more software, 91 +and a lot more work, than setting up a similar site with an integrated package 92 +like Fossil. 93 + 94 +<li><p>Nobody really understands Git. 95 +<img src="https://www.fossil-scm.org/fossil/doc/trunk/www/xkcd-git.gif"><br> 96 +(credit: [https://xkcd.com/1597/]) 97 +</ol> 98 + 99 +<h2>See Also</h2> 100 + 101 +<p>Other pages that talk about Fossil and Git include: 102 +<ul> 103 +<li><p>[https://fossil-scm.org/fossil/doc/trunk/www/fossil-v-git.wiki|Fossil vs. Git] 104 +<li><p>[https://www.fossil-scm.org/fossil/doc/trunk/www/quotes.wiki|What others say about Fossil and Git] 105 +</ul> 106 + 107 +<h1>A Git-User's Guide To Accessing SQLite Source Code</h1> 108 + 109 +<p> 110 +If you are a devoted Git user and have no intention of changing, 111 +you can still easily access SQLite. This section gives some hints 112 +on how to do so. 113 + 114 +<h2>GitHub Mirrors</h2> 115 + 116 +<p> 117 +There is a mirror of the SQLite source tree on GitHub at 118 +[https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite]. This mirror is maintained 119 +by user "mackyle" who is unaffiliated with, and unknown to, 120 +the official SQLite development team. We do not know mackyle, 121 +but we observe that he does a terrific job of keeping his mirror 122 +current, and so if you want to access the SQLite source code on 123 +GitHub, his mirror is the recommended source. 124 + 125 +<h2>Web Access</h2> 126 + 127 +<p> 128 +The [https://sqlite.org/src/timeline|SQLite Fossil Repository] contains links 129 +for downloading a Tarball, ZIP Archive, or [SQLite Archive] for any 130 +historical version of SQLite. The URLs for these downloads are 131 +simple and can be incorporated easily into automated tools. The format is: 132 + 133 +<center> 134 +<tt>https://sqlite.org/src/tarball/</tt><i>VERSION</i><tt>/sqlite.tar.gz</tt> 135 +</center> 136 + 137 +<p> 138 +Simply replace <i>VERSION</i> with some description of the version to be 139 +downloaded. The <i>VERSION</i> can be a prefix of the cryptographic hash 140 +name of a specific check-in, or the name of a branch (in which case the 141 +most recent version of the branch is fetched) or a tag for a specific 142 +check-in like "version-3.23.0". 143 + 144 +<h2>Fossil Access</h2> 145 + 146 +<p> 147 +Fossil is really easy to install and use. Here are the steps for unix. 148 +(Windows is similar.) 149 + 150 +<ol> 151 +<li> 152 +Download the self-contained Fossil executable from 153 +[https://fossil-scm.org/fossil/uv/download.html] and put the executable 154 +somewhere on your $PATH. 155 +<li><tt>mkdir ~/fossils</tt> 156 +<li><tt>fossil clone https://fossil-scm.org/fossil ~/fossils/sqlite.fossil</tt> 157 +<li><tt>mkdir ~/sqlite; cd ~/sqlite</tt> 158 +<li><tt>fossil open ~/sqlite.fossil .</tt> 159 +</ol> 160 + 161 +<p> 162 +Subsequently, to update your check-out, simply type: 163 + 164 +<blockquote> 165 +<tt>fossil up </tt><i>VERSION</i> 166 +</blockquote> 167 + 168 +<p> 169 +Use "trunk" for version to get the latest trunk version of SQLite. 170 +Or use a prefix of a cryptographic hash name, or the name of some branch 171 +or tag. 172 + 173 +<p> 174 +Use the "<tt>fossil ui</tt>" command from within the ~/sqlite checkout to 175 +bring up a local copy of the website.