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0 pointsubernostrum10y ago0 comments

Because of how Git is a distributed model

News flash: the number of people using the "D" in "DVCS" is so tiny that it might as well not be there. Central server with central authoritative repository, where all developers push and pull and synchronize, is how people use git in the real world, and it's time to stop pretending that any distributed features will ever be used.

(which is to say, if github disappeared tomorrow, everyone using it would find a way to transition to yet another central server with central authoritative repo that everyone uses)

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5 comments · 5 top-level

scrollaway10y ago

Wait, what?

Git doesn't do remote propagation all by itself, so if you're thinking "distributed" like DNS, then yeah of course devs don't do that. Of course we "rely" on a central repository. But if github goes down for good, we change our remotes and the migration is painless.

What else would you want? Propagation would be neat but is completely unnecessary (which is why it hasn't been done). But if the remote loses all my data, well, I and every other dev have a copy locally and we can start working from a fresh remote.

Github repositories are "authoritative" by convention. These things are a feature when you work in a team. In some of my personal projects, it's not the Github repository that's authoritative but my local repository. I really don't understand what you're trying to get at, honestly... git is popular because it covers all those use cases.

manigandham10y ago

I think that's a different reading of what Distributed means for DVCS.

Git is about everyone having a full copy of a repo so they can go through the entire history and branch and commit freely. To actually move a project forward amongst several devs there will inevitably have to be synchronization using push/pull so there's no way to escape that.

chacha10210y ago

Everyone who uses Git is using the distributed features. It is not possible to use Git without the distributed features, because every time you do a commit or a merge or a push, you are doing it on your local machine on your own remote.

That being said, I will agree with you that most remotes exist on personal computers and not server and we tend to be focused on more centralized servers. I think that is a remnant of the Subversion mentality and is slowly getting better.

But, the distributed features of git are alive and well. Maybe not as alive and well as we'd all like. But, alive and well.

kbaker10y ago

I think that most open source projects just don't have the resources or contributor levels for true distributed development to happen.You probably are right that using a DVCS as intended is overkill for most projects.

But the whole reason why git exists at all is to support development of the Linux kernel. I don't think you can brush it off so easily.

Look here for an example of what real distributed development looks like with git: http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next....

phamilton10y ago

Forking a repo creates an alternative authoritative repository. That's a huge part of the D in DVCS.

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