movein - a script to help maintain a direcotry with multiple overlayed
git repositories.
The latest version should be avaliable from http://stew.vireo.org/movein
My goal has been to keep my home directory in a version control system
effectively. I have a number of constraints however. I want the
system to be modular. I don't always need X related config files in
my home directory. Sometimes I want just my zsh related files and my
emacs related files. I have multiple machines I check email from, and
on those want to keep my notmuch/offlineimap files in sync, but I
don't need these on every machine I'm on, expecially since those
configurations have more sensitive data. I played around with
[laysvn](http://laysvn.alioth.debian.org/) for a while, but it never
really seemed comfortable. I more recently discovered that
[madduck](http://madduck.net/) had started a
"[vcs-home](http://vcs-home.madduck.net/)" website and mailing list,
talking about doing what I'm trying to do.
I'm now going with madduck's idea of using git with detached work
trees, so that I can have multiple git repositories all using $HOME as
their $GIT_WORK_TREE. I have a script inspired by his
[vcsh](http://git.madduck.net/v/etc/zsh.git?a=blob;f=.zsh/func/vcsh;hb=HEAD)
script that will create a subshell where the GIT_DIR, GIT_WORK_TREE
variables are set for me. I can do my git operations related to just
one git repository in that shell, while still operating directly on my
config files in $HOME, and avoiding any kind of nasty symlinking or
hardlinking. Since I am usually using my script to allow me to
quickly "move in" to a new host, I named my script "movein". It can
be found [here](http://git.vireo.org/movein.git/). Here's how I'll
typically use it:
stew@guppy:~$ movein init
git server hostname? git.vireo.org
path to remote repositories? [~/git]
Local repository directory? [~/.movein]
Location of .mrconfig file? [~/.mrconfig]
stew@guppy:~$
This is just run once. It asks me questions about how to setup the
'movein' environment. Now I should have a .moveinrc storing the
answers I gave above, I have a stub of a .mrconfig, and an empty
.movein directory. Next thing to do is to add some of my
repositories. The one I typically add on all machines is my "shell"
repository. It has a .bashrc/.zshrc, an .alias that both source and
other zsh goodies I'll generally wish to be around:
stew@guppy:~$ ls .zshrc
ls: cannot access .zshrc: No such file or directory
stew@guppy:~$ movein add shell
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/stew/.movein/shell.git/
remote: Counting objects: 42, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (39/39), done.
remote: Total 42 (delta 18), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (42/42), done.
From ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/shell
* [new branch] master -> origin/master
stew@guppy:~$ ls .zshrc
.zshrc
So what happened here is that the ssh://git.vireo.org/~/git/shell.git
repository was cloned with GIT_WORK_TREE=~ and
GIT_DIR=.movein/shell.git. My .zshrc (along with a bunch of other
files) has appeared. Next perhaps I'll add my emacs config files:
stew@guppy:~$ movein add emacs
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/stew/.movein/emacs.git/
remote: Counting objects: 77, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (63/63), done.
remote: Total 77 (delta 10), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (77/77), done.
From ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/emacs
* [new branch] emacs21 -> origin/emacs21
* [new branch] master -> origin/master
stew@guppy:~$ ls .emacs
.emacs
stew@guppy:~$
My remote repositry has a master branch, but also has an emacs21
branch, which I can use when checking out on older machines which
don't yet have newer versions of emacs.
Let's say I have made changes to my .zshrc file, and I want to check
them in. Since we are working with detached work trees, git can't
immediately help us:
stew@guppy:~$ git status
fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
The movein script allows me to "login" to one of the repositories. It
will create a subshell with GIT_WORK_TREE and GIT_DIR set. In that
subshell, git operations operate as one might expect:
stew@guppy:~ $ movein login shell
stew@guppy:~ (shell:master>*) $ echo >> .zshrc
stew@guppy:~ (shell:master>*) $ git add .zshrc
stew@guppy:~ (shell:master>*) $ git commit -m "adding a newline to the end of .zshrc"
[master 81b7311] adding a newline to the end of .zshrc
1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
stew@guppy:~ (shell:master>*) $ git push
Counting objects: 8, done.
Delta compression using up to 2 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (6/6), done.
Writing objects: 100% (6/6), 546 bytes, done.
Total 6 (delta 4), reused 0 (delta 0)
To ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/shell.git
d24bf2d..81b7311 master -> master
stew@guppy:~ (shell:master*) $ exit
stew@guppy:~ $
If I want to create a brand new repository from files in my home directory. I can:
stew@guppy:~ $ touch methere
stew@guppy:~ $ touch mealsothere
stew@guppy:~ $ movein new oohlala methere mealsothere
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/stew/git/oohlala.git/
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/stew/.movein/oohlala.git/
[master (root-commit) 7abe5ba] initial checkin
0 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 mealsothere
create mode 100644 methere
Counting objects: 3, done.
Delta compression using up to 2 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 224 bytes, done.
Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/oohlala.git
* [new branch] master -> master
Above, the command movein new oohlala methere mealsothere
says "create a new repository containing two files: methere,
mealsothere". A bare repository is created on the remote machine, a
repository is created in the .movein directory, the files are
committed, and the new commit is pushed to the remote repository. New
on some other machine, I could run movein add oohlala to get these
two new files.
The movein script maintains a .mrconfig file, so that joeyh's
[mr](http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/mr/) tool can be used to manage the repositories in bulk. Commands
like "mr update", "mr commit", "mr push" will act on all the known
repositories. Here's an example:
stew@guppy:~ $ cat .mrconfig
[DEFAULT]
include = cat /usr/share/mr/git-fake-bare
[/home/stew/.movein/emacs.git]
checkout = git_fake_bare_checkout 'ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/emacs.git' 'emacs.git' '../../'
[/home/stew/.movein/shell.git]
checkout = git_fake_bare_checkout 'ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/shell.git' 'shell.git' '../../'
[/home/stew/.movein/oohlala.git]
checkout = git_fake_bare_checkout 'ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/oohlala.git' 'oohlala.git' '../../'
stew@guppy:~ $ mr update
mr update: /home/stew//home/stew/.movein/emacs.git
From ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/emacs
* branch master -> FETCH_HEAD
Already up-to-date.
mr update: /home/stew//home/stew/.movein/oohlala.git
From ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/oohlala
* branch master -> FETCH_HEAD
Already up-to-date.
mr update: /home/stew//home/stew/.movein/shell.git
From ssh://git.vireo.org//home/stew/git/shell
* branch master -> FETCH_HEAD
Already up-to-date.
mr update: finished (3 ok)
stew@guppy:~ $ mr update
There are still issues I'd like to address. The big one in my mind is
that there is no .gitignore. So when you "movein login
somerepository" then run "git status", It tells you about hundreds of
untracked files in your home directory. Ideally, I just want to know
about the files which are already associated with the repository I'm
logged into.