Go to file
Derrick Stolee e32eaf73b0 commit-reach: add get_branch_base_for_tip
Add a new reachability algorithm that intends to discover (from a heuristic)
which branch was used as the starting point for a given commit. Add focused
tests using the 'test-tool reach' command.

In repositories that use pull requests (or merge requests) to advance one or
more "protected" branches, the history of that reference can be recovered by
following the first-parent history in most cases. Most are completed using
no-fast-forward merges, though squash merges are quite common. Less common
is rebase-and-merge, which still validates this assumption. Finally, the
case that breaks this assumption is the fast-forward update (with potential
rebasing).  Even in this case, the previous commit commonly appears in the
first-parent history of the branch.

Similar assumptions can be made for a topic branch created by a single user
with the intention to merge back into another branch. Using 'git commit',
'git merge', and 'git cherry-pick' from HEAD will default to having the
first-parent commit be the previous commit at HEAD. This history changes
only with commands such as 'git reset' or 'git rebase', where the command
names also imply that the branch is starting from a new location.

With this movement of branches in mind, the following heuristic is proposed
as a way to determine the base branch for a given source branch:

  Among a list of candidate base branches, select the candidate that
  minimizes the number of commits in the first-parent history of the source
  that are not in the first-parent history of the candidate.

Prior third-party solutions to this problem have used this optimization
criteria, but have relied upon extracting the first-parent history and
comparing those lists as tables instead of using commit-graph walks.

Given current command-line interface options, this optimization criteria is
not easy to detect directly. Even using the command

  git rev-list --count --first-parent <base>..<source>

does not measure this count, as it uses full reachability from <base> to
determine which commits to remove from the range '<base>..<source>'. This
may lead to one asking if we should instead be using the full reachability
of the candidate and only the first-parent history of the source. This,
unfortunately, does not work for repositories that use long-lived branches
and automation to merge across those branches.

In extremely large repositories, merging into a single trunk may not be
feasible.  This is usually due to the desired frequency of updates
(thousands of engineers doing daily work) combined with the time required to
perform a validation build.  These factors combine to create significant
risk of semantic merge conflicts, leading to build breaks on the trunk. In
response, repository maintainers can create a single Level Zero (L0) trunk
and multiple Level One (L1) branches. By partitioning the engineers by
organization, these engineers may see lower risk of semantic merge conflicts
as well as be protected against build breaks in other L1 branches. The key
to making this system work is a semi-automated process of merging L1
branches into the L0 trunk and vice-versa.  In a large enough organization,
these L1 branches may further split into L2 or L3 branches, but the same
principles apply for merging across deeper levels.

If these automated merges use a typical merge with the second parent
bringing in the "new" content, then each L0 and L1 branch can track its
previous positions by following first-parent history, which appear as
parallel paths (until reaching the first place where the branches diverged).
If we also walk to second parents, then the histories overlap significantly
and cannot be distinguished except for very-recent changes.

For this reason, the first-parent condition should be symmetrical across the
base and source branches.

Another common case for desiring the result of this optimization method is
the use of release branches. When releasing a version of a repository, a
branch can be used to track that release. Any updates that are worth fixing
in that release can be merged to the release branch and shipped with only
the necessary fixes without any new features introduced in the trunk branch.
The 'maint-2.<X>' branches represent this pattern in the Git project. The
microsoft/git fork uses 'vfs-2.<X>.<Y>' branches to track the changes that
are custom to that fork on top of each upstream Git release 2.<X>.<Y>. This
application doesn't need the symmetrical first-parent condition, but the use
of first-parent histories does not change the results for these branches.

To determine the base branch from a list of candidates, create a new method
in commit-reach.c that performs a single* commit-graph walk. The core
concept is to walk first-parents starting at the candidate bases and the
source, tracking the "best" base to reach a given commit. Use generation
numbers to ensure that a commit is walked at most once and all children have
been explored before visiting it.  When reaching a commit that is reachable
from both a base and the source, we will then have a guarantee that this is
the closest intersection of first-parent histories. Track the best base to
reach that commit and return it as a result. In rare cases involving
multiple root commits, the first-parent history of the source may never
intersect any of the candidates and thus a null result is returned.

* There are up to two walks, since we require all commits to have a computed
  generation number in order to avoid incorrect results. This is similar to
  the need for computed generation numbers in ahead_behind() as implemented
  in fd67d149bd (commit-reach: implement ahead_behind() logic, 2023-03-20).

In order to track the "best" base, use a new commit slab that stores an
integer.  This value defaults to zero upon initialization, so use -1 to
track that the source commit can reach this commit and use 'i + 1' to track
that the ith base can reach this commit. When multiple bases can reach a
commit, minimize the index to break ties. This allows the caller to specify
an order to the bases that determines some amount of preference when the
heuristic does not result in a unique result.

The trickiest part of the integer slab is what happens when reaching a
collision among the histories of the bases and the history of the source.
This is noticed when viewing the first parent and seeing that it has a slab
value that differs in sign (negative or positive). In this case, the
collision commit is stored in the method variable 'branch_point' and its
slab value is set to -1. The index of the best base (so far) is stored in
the method variable 'best_index'. It is possible that there are multiple
commits that have the branch_point as its first parent, leading to multiple
updates of best_index.  The result is determined when 'branch_point' is
visited in the commit walk, giving the guarantee that all commits that could
reach 'branch_point' were visited.

Several interesting cases of collisions and different results are tested in
the t6600-test-reach.sh script. Recall that this script also tests the
algorithm in three possible states involving the commit-graph file and how
many commits are written in the file. This provides some coverage of the
need (and lack of need) for the ensure_generations_valid() method.

Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-08-14 10:10:05 -07:00
.github
Documentation Git 2.46-rc2 2024-07-23 16:54:35 -07:00
block-sha1
builtin Merge branch 'js/var-git-shell-path' 2024-07-17 10:47:27 -07:00
ci Merge branch 'rj/test-sanitize-leak-log-fix' 2024-07-17 10:47:24 -07:00
compat mingw(is_msys2_sh): handle forward slashes in the `sh.exe` path, too 2024-07-13 16:23:37 -07:00
contrib cmake: fix build of `t-oidtree` 2024-07-12 14:32:52 -07:00
ewah
git-gui Merge https://github.com/j6t/git-gui 2024-07-07 22:50:59 -07:00
gitk-git
gitweb Merge branch 'am/gitweb-feed-use-committer-date' 2024-07-15 10:11:41 -07:00
mergetools
negotiator
oss-fuzz Merge branch 'tb/path-filter-fix' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
perl
po l10n: zh_CN: updated translation for 2.46 2024-07-28 19:52:41 +08:00
refs Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
reftable Merge branch 'cp/unit-test-reftable-record' 2024-07-15 10:11:44 -07:00
sha1
sha1collisiondetection@855827c583
sha1dc
sha256
t commit-reach: add get_branch_base_for_tip 2024-08-14 10:10:05 -07:00
templates
trace2
xdiff
.cirrus.yml
.clang-format Merge branch 'rs/clang-format-updates' 2024-07-15 10:11:42 -07:00
.editorconfig
.gitattributes
.gitignore
.gitlab-ci.yml
.gitmodules
.mailmap
.tsan-suppressions
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
COPYING
GIT-VERSION-GEN Git 2.46 2024-07-29 07:14:09 -07:00
INSTALL
LGPL-2.1
Makefile Merge branch 'cp/unit-test-reftable-record' 2024-07-15 10:11:44 -07:00
README.md
RelNotes More post 2.45.2 updates from the 'master' front 2024-06-28 15:53:19 -07:00
SECURITY.md
abspath.c
abspath.h
aclocal.m4
add-interactive.c
add-interactive.h
add-patch.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
advice.c Merge branch 'ds/advice-sparse-index-expansion' 2024-07-16 11:18:56 -07:00
advice.h Merge branch 'ds/advice-sparse-index-expansion' 2024-07-16 11:18:56 -07:00
alias.c
alias.h
alloc.c
alloc.h
apply.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
apply.h Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
archive-tar.c
archive-zip.c
archive.c
archive.h
attr.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
attr.h
banned.h
base85.c
base85.h
bisect.c
bisect.h
blame.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
blame.h
blob.c
blob.h
bloom.c Merge branch 'tb/path-filter-fix' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
bloom.h bloom: introduce `deinit_bloom_filters()` 2024-06-25 13:52:06 -07:00
branch.c
branch.h
builtin.h
bulk-checkin.c
bulk-checkin.h
bundle-uri.c Merge branch 'xx/bundie-uri-fixes' 2024-07-08 14:53:11 -07:00
bundle-uri.h
bundle.c Merge branch 'xx/bundie-uri-fixes' 2024-07-08 14:53:11 -07:00
bundle.h
cache-tree.c
cache-tree.h
cbtree.c
cbtree.h
chdir-notify.c
chdir-notify.h
check-builtins.sh
checkout.c
checkout.h
chunk-format.c
chunk-format.h
color.c
color.h
column.c
column.h
combine-diff.c
command-list.txt
commit-graph.c Merge branch 'tb/path-filter-fix' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
commit-graph.h
commit-reach.c commit-reach: add get_branch_base_for_tip 2024-08-14 10:10:05 -07:00
commit-reach.h commit-reach: add get_branch_base_for_tip 2024-08-14 10:10:05 -07:00
commit-slab-decl.h
commit-slab-impl.h
commit-slab.h
commit.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
commit.h Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
common-main.c
config.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
config.h Merge branch 'tb/pseudo-merge-reachability-bitmap' 2024-06-24 16:39:13 -07:00
config.mak.dev Merge branch 'tb/dev-build-pedantic-fix' 2024-07-15 10:11:42 -07:00
config.mak.in
config.mak.uname
configure.ac
connect.c
connect.h
connected.c
connected.h
convert.c
convert.h
copy.c
copy.h
credential.c
credential.h
csum-file.c
csum-file.h
ctype.c
daemon.c
date.c date: detect underflow/overflow when parsing dates with timezone offset 2024-06-25 17:07:41 -07:00
date.h
decorate.c
decorate.h
delta-islands.c
delta-islands.h
delta.h
detect-compiler
diagnose.c
diagnose.h
diff-delta.c
diff-lib.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
diff-merges.c
diff-merges.h
diff-no-index.c
diff.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
diff.h
diffcore-break.c
diffcore-delta.c
diffcore-order.c
diffcore-pickaxe.c
diffcore-rename.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
diffcore-rotate.c
diffcore.h
dir-iterator.c
dir-iterator.h
dir.c win32: override `fspathcmp()` with a directory separator-aware version 2024-07-13 16:23:36 -07:00
dir.h win32: override `fspathcmp()` with a directory separator-aware version 2024-07-13 16:23:36 -07:00
editor.c
editor.h
entry.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
entry.h
environment.c
environment.h
exec-cmd.c
exec-cmd.h
fetch-negotiator.c
fetch-negotiator.h
fetch-pack.c Merge branch 'xx/bundie-uri-fixes' 2024-07-08 14:53:11 -07:00
fetch-pack.h
fmt-merge-msg.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
fmt-merge-msg.h
fsck.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
fsck.h
fsmonitor--daemon.h
fsmonitor-ipc.c
fsmonitor-ipc.h
fsmonitor-ll.h
fsmonitor-path-utils.h
fsmonitor-settings.c
fsmonitor-settings.h
fsmonitor.c
fsmonitor.h
generate-cmdlist.sh
generate-configlist.sh
generate-hooklist.sh
gettext.c
gettext.h
git-archimport.perl
git-compat-util.h win32: override `fspathcmp()` with a directory separator-aware version 2024-07-13 16:23:36 -07:00
git-curl-compat.h
git-cvsexportcommit.perl
git-cvsimport.perl
git-cvsserver.perl
git-difftool--helper.sh
git-filter-branch.sh
git-instaweb.sh
git-merge-octopus.sh
git-merge-one-file.sh
git-merge-resolve.sh
git-mergetool--lib.sh
git-mergetool.sh
git-p4.py
git-quiltimport.sh
git-request-pull.sh
git-send-email.perl Merge branch 'cb/send-email-sanitize-trailer-addresses' 2024-07-16 11:18:56 -07:00
git-sh-i18n.sh
git-sh-setup.sh
git-submodule.sh
git-svn.perl
git-web--browse.sh
git-zlib.c
git-zlib.h
git.c
git.rc
gpg-interface.c
gpg-interface.h
graph.c
graph.h
grep.c
grep.h
hash-lookup.c
hash-lookup.h
hash.h
hashmap.c
hashmap.h
help.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
help.h
hex-ll.c
hex-ll.h
hex.c
hex.h
hook.c
hook.h
http-backend.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
http-fetch.c
http-push.c
http-walker.c
http.c Merge branch 'jc/http-cookiefile' 2024-07-17 10:47:26 -07:00
http.h
ident.c
ident.h
imap-send.c
iterator.h
json-writer.c
json-writer.h
khash.h
kwset.c
kwset.h
levenshtein.c
levenshtein.h
line-log.c
line-log.h
line-range.c
line-range.h
linear-assignment.c
linear-assignment.h
list-objects-filter-options.c
list-objects-filter-options.h
list-objects-filter.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
list-objects-filter.h
list-objects.c
list-objects.h
list.h
lockfile.c
lockfile.h
log-tree.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
log-tree.h
loose.c
loose.h
ls-refs.c
ls-refs.h
mailinfo.c
mailinfo.h
mailmap.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
mailmap.h
match-trees.c
match-trees.h
mem-pool.c
mem-pool.h
merge-blobs.c
merge-blobs.h
merge-ll.c
merge-ll.h
merge-ort-wrappers.c
merge-ort-wrappers.h
merge-ort.c Merge branch 'en/ort-inner-merge-error-fix' 2024-07-16 11:18:55 -07:00
merge-ort.h Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
merge-recursive.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
merge-recursive.h
merge.c
merge.h
mergesort.h
midx-write.c Merge branch 'ds/midx-write-repack-fix' 2024-07-23 16:54:33 -07:00
midx.c
midx.h
name-hash.c
name-hash.h
notes-cache.c
notes-cache.h
notes-merge.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
notes-merge.h
notes-utils.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
notes-utils.h
notes.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
notes.h
object-file-convert.c
object-file-convert.h
object-file.c Merge branch 'ew/object-convert-leakfix' 2024-07-02 09:59:01 -07:00
object-file.h
object-name.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
object-name.h
object-store-ll.h
object-store.h
object.c
object.h Merge branch 'tb/path-filter-fix' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
oid-array.c
oid-array.h
oidmap.c
oidmap.h
oidset.c
oidset.h
oidtree.c
oidtree.h
pack-bitmap-write.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
pack-bitmap.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
pack-bitmap.h
pack-check.c
pack-mtimes.c
pack-mtimes.h
pack-objects.c
pack-objects.h
pack-revindex.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
pack-revindex.h
pack-write.c
pack.h
packfile.c
packfile.h
pager.c Merge branch 'rj/pager-die-upon-exec-failure' 2024-07-08 14:53:08 -07:00
pager.h
parallel-checkout.c
parallel-checkout.h
parse-options-cb.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
parse-options.c
parse-options.h
parse.c
parse.h
patch-delta.c
patch-ids.c
patch-ids.h
path.c
path.h Merge branch 'jc/worktree-git-path' 2024-06-24 16:39:15 -07:00
pathspec.c
pathspec.h Merge branch 'as/pathspec-h-typofix' 2024-07-12 08:41:57 -07:00
pkt-line.c
pkt-line.h
preload-index.c
preload-index.h
pretty.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
pretty.h
prio-queue.c
prio-queue.h
progress.c
progress.h
promisor-remote.c
promisor-remote.h
prompt.c
prompt.h
protocol-caps.c
protocol-caps.h
protocol.c
protocol.h
prune-packed.c
prune-packed.h
pseudo-merge.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
pseudo-merge.h
quote.c
quote.h
range-diff.c
range-diff.h
reachable.c
reachable.h
read-cache-ll.h
read-cache.c
read-cache.h
rebase-interactive.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
rebase-interactive.h
rebase.c
rebase.h
ref-filter.c
ref-filter.h
reflog-walk.c
reflog-walk.h
reflog.c
reflog.h
refs.c Merge branch 'ps/ref-storage-migration-fix' 2024-07-23 16:54:34 -07:00
refs.h Merge branch 'ch/refs-without-the-repository-fix' 2024-07-18 08:30:25 -07:00
refspec.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
refspec.h
remote-curl.c Merge branch 'jk/remote-wo-url' 2024-07-02 09:59:01 -07:00
remote.c Merge branch 'jk/remote-wo-url' 2024-07-02 09:59:01 -07:00
remote.h Merge branch 'jk/remote-wo-url' 2024-07-02 09:59:01 -07:00
replace-object.c
replace-object.h
repo-settings.c Merge branch 'tb/path-filter-fix' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
repository.c
repository.h Merge branch 'tb/path-filter-fix' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
rerere.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
rerere.h
reset.c
reset.h
resolve-undo.c
resolve-undo.h
revision.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
revision.h
run-command.c run-command: declare the `git_shell_path()` function globally 2024-07-13 16:23:37 -07:00
run-command.h run-command: declare the `git_shell_path()` function globally 2024-07-13 16:23:37 -07:00
sane-ctype.h
scalar.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
send-pack.c Merge branch 'jc/disable-push-nego-for-deletion' 2024-07-15 10:11:43 -07:00
send-pack.h
sequencer.c Merge branch 'ps/leakfixes-more' 2024-07-08 14:53:10 -07:00
sequencer.h Merge branch 'pw/rebase-i-error-message' into maint-2.45 2024-07-02 09:27:56 -07:00
serve.c
serve.h
server-info.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
server-info.h
setup.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
setup.h
sh-i18n--envsubst.c
sha1dc_git.c
sha1dc_git.h
shallow.c
shallow.h
shared.mak
shell.c
shortlog.h
sideband.c
sideband.h
sigchain.c
sigchain.h
simple-ipc.h
sparse-index.c Merge branch 'ds/advice-sparse-index-expansion' 2024-07-16 11:18:56 -07:00
sparse-index.h
split-index.c
split-index.h
stable-qsort.c
statinfo.c
statinfo.h
strbuf.c
strbuf.h
streaming.c
streaming.h
string-list.c
string-list.h
strmap.c
strmap.h
strvec.c strvec: declare the `strvec_push_nodup()` function globally 2024-07-13 16:23:36 -07:00
strvec.h strvec: declare the `strvec_push_nodup()` function globally 2024-07-13 16:23:36 -07:00
sub-process.c
sub-process.h
submodule-config.c
submodule-config.h
submodule.c
submodule.h
symlinks.c
symlinks.h
tag.c
tag.h
tar.h
tempfile.c
tempfile.h
thread-utils.c
thread-utils.h
tmp-objdir.c
tmp-objdir.h
trace.c
trace.h
trace2.c
trace2.h
trailer.c
trailer.h
transport-helper.c
transport-internal.h
transport.c Merge branch 'xx/bundie-uri-fixes' 2024-07-08 14:53:11 -07:00
transport.h
tree-diff.c
tree-walk.c
tree-walk.h
tree.c
tree.h
unicode-width.h
unimplemented.sh
unix-socket.c
unix-socket.h
unix-stream-server.c
unix-stream-server.h
unpack-trees.c
unpack-trees.h
upload-pack.c
upload-pack.h
url.c
url.h
urlmatch.c
urlmatch.h
usage.c
userdiff.c Merge branch 'rs/diff-exit-code-with-external-diff' 2024-06-20 15:45:08 -07:00
userdiff.h Merge branch 'rs/diff-exit-code-with-external-diff' 2024-06-20 15:45:08 -07:00
utf8.c
utf8.h
varint.c
varint.h
version.c
version.h
versioncmp.c
versioncmp.h
walker.c
walker.h
wildmatch.c
wildmatch.h
worktree.c
worktree.h Merge branch 'jc/worktree-git-path' 2024-06-24 16:39:15 -07:00
wrap-for-bin.sh
wrapper.c
wrapper.h
write-or-die.c
write-or-die.h
ws.c
ws.h
wt-status.c Merge branch 'ps/use-the-repository' 2024-07-02 09:59:00 -07:00
wt-status.h
xdiff-interface.c
xdiff-interface.h

README.md

Build status

Git - fast, scalable, distributed revision control system

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.

Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 (some parts of it are under different licenses, compatible with the GPLv2). It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of hackers around the net.

Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.

Many Git online resources are accessible from https://git-scm.com/ including full documentation and Git related tools.

See Documentation/gittutorial.txt to get started, then see Documentation/giteveryday.txt for a useful minimum set of commands, and Documentation/git-<commandname>.txt for documentation of each command. If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be read with man gittutorial or git help tutorial, and the documentation of each command with man git-<commandname> or git help <commandname>.

CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt (man gitcvs-migration or git help cvs-migration if git is installed).

The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission and Documentation/CodingGuidelines).

Those wishing to help with error message, usage and informational message string translations (localization l10) should see po/README.md (a po file is a Portable Object file that holds the translations).

To subscribe to the list, send an email to git+subscribe@vger.kernel.org (see https://subspace.kernel.org/subscribing.html for details). The mailing list archives are available at https://lore.kernel.org/git/, https://marc.info/?l=git and other archival sites.

Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the Git Security mailing list git-security@googlegroups.com.

The maintainer frequently sends the "What's cooking" reports that list the current status of various development topics to the mailing list. The discussion following them give a good reference for project status, development direction and remaining tasks.

The name "git" was given by Linus Torvalds when he wrote the very first version. He described the tool as "the stupid content tracker" and the name as (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