git-meta

Easy solution to:

• Automatically preserve all the correct dates, times (including zones and microseconds), ownership, and access permissions on all your files in git
• Quickly set up a new non-cloud, non-github private git project on your own servers, which you and/or your team can work with from any number of other machines
• Optionally have your server automatically extract your files and keep them up-to-date (for example: so you can deploy to your webserver's live environment with "git push"

Quick-Start

1. install it:

        git clone https://github.com/gitcnd/git-meta.git
        sudo cp -a git-meta/git-meta.pl /usr/local/bin/
   

then either

• set up to use it:

        cd my_existing_repo
        git-meta.pl -setup -l /usr/local/bin/git-meta.pl
  

or

• create a brand-new local project

        git-meta.pl -newgit -l . MyProject /var/www/html/MyProject-optional-autoextract-folder
  

Synopsis

Mode 1 - preserving dates/times/ownership/permissions etc:

    # creates the pre-commit and post-checkout hooks (see below)
    cd ~/myrepo
    git-meta.pl -setup -l /usr/local/bin/git-meta.pl
    -or-
    git-meta.pl -setup


    # optional manual "save" usage (Typically this is called from the pre-commit) to preserve dates/times/ownership/permissions
    cd ~/myrepo
    git-meta.pl -save [optional list of files]


    # optional manual "restore" usage (Typically called from post-checkout)
    cd ~/myrepo
    git-meta.pl -restore [optional list of files]

How Mode 1 works:

A git pre-commit hook is added, which creates the file ".git-meta" in your project and adds this to your commit.
.git-meta contains all the real file metadata in your project (correct dates and times, ownerships, permissions, etc)

A git post-checkout hook is added, which restores all the correct information from the .git-meta file

Mode 2 - Automatically set up a new full-featued non-cloud repo on your own machine/servers

    # Create a new local master repo, which preserves dates etc, and also automatically extracts files every time you push (handy for automatically deploying to a live web server through git-push for example)
    # (handy for working on your own private mahcines, such as when maintaining web servers.)
    perl git-meta.pl -master_location=/usr/local/apache2/gitblobs -newgit mynewproject /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/mynewproject

    # creates a working 3-folder shared dev environment for production web server site
    # Omitting "-master_location" will default to ~/gitblobs
    # Uses `sudo chmod g+s` to allow for multi-user environemnts based on unix group permissions.

Note: adds the file .git-meta to your project

How Mode 2 works:

Run git-meta.pl with the -newgit option on your server (e.g. your web server) where your master files will live. e.g.

    perl git-meta.pl -newgit MyProject /var/www/html/MyProject

A "master" folder where all your master files will live is created locally on that server, by default this will be in ~/gitblobs/MyProject A "working" folder where you check out and edit your files etc is create locally too: e.g. the example folder will be: ./MyProject An optional "live" folder is also created - this is where all your most up-to-date copies of your files will be auto-extracted into (e.g. typically your webroot folder, like /var/www/html/MyProject/ ) Permissions etc are correctly set up for teams to work on these files (see also the -group option) The "git-meta.pl -setup" option is applied locally too, so all your file dates/etc will be properly preserved at all times

You can then clone additional copies of the above onto other machines - e.g. your laptop, like this:

    git clone ssh://your-server/home/username/gitblobs/MyProject
    cd MyProject
    git-meta.pl -setup -l . 

be sure to run that `git-meta.pl -setup -l .` command: "git clone" does not automatically clone the hooks you need which are required to keep your dates/times/etc preserved.

Options

    -f              # Specify the meta filename to use ( defaults to .git-meta )
    -save           # Save into the .git-meta. Saves all files if none are provided
    -restore        # Restore from the .git-meta. Restores all files if none are provided
    -setup          # create the necessary pre-commit and post-checkout files to activate this solution in your repo
    -strict         # Stop with errors instead of assume what the user wants (partially implimented)
    -dryrun         # Show what would be done, without doing it (partially implimented)
    -l              # use a symlink when doing setup, for pre-commit and post-checkout (e.g. -l /usr/local/bin/git-meta.pl) - otherwise - copies the file there.
    -newgit         # creates a working 3-folder shared dev environment for production web (or other) server site
    -master_location# Where to store the master filess (defaults to ~/gitblobs/)
    -group          # which groupname do all developers belong to
    -autopush       # adds a post-commit hook that automatically does a "git push" every time you commit. (only works for the -setup command)
    -debug          # print everything going on

.git-meta file format

    # lines starting with # are comments
    octal file mode, owner, group, mtime, atime, spare1, spare2, filename

FILENAMES

.git/hooks/pre-commit - this same perl script, when it has the name "pre-commit" assumes you're running "git-meta.pl -save" .git/hooks/post-checkout - this same perl script, when it has the name "post-checkout" assumes you're running "git-meta.pl -restore" .git/hooks/post-merge - this same perl script, when it has the name "post-merge" assumes you're running "git-meta.pl -restore" newgit.pl - this same perl script, when it has the name "newgit.pl", behaves as if the -newgit option was supplied - see below.

newgit.pl - create a new, optionally auto-extracting, private git repo, with preservation of file metadata (dates/time, permissions, ownership) -or- git-meta.pl -newgit

-newgit Synopsis

    newgit.pl gitname [optional-auto-extract-location]
    # creates gitname                               # this is where master files live. Uses $master_location/gitname unless gitname starts with /
    # creates ./gitname                             # this is a local working folder for editing your files etc (you can "git clone" more of these later)
    # maybe creates optional-auto-extract-location  # this is where they'll be auto-extracted (properly includes mv/rm etc) upon all git push operations

    SCREW_UP_DATES=1 newgit.pl gitname [optional-auto-extract-location]
    # same as above, omitting the hooks which preserve dates/permissions/ownership

    DRYRUN=1 newgit.pl gitname [optional-auto-extract-location]
    DRYRUN=1 SCREW_UP_DATES=1 newgit.pl gitname [optional-auto-extract-location]
    # same as either of the above two, but doing nothing (shows what commands will be executed)

Linux

    Works natively

Windows

    If this code is run inside Windows, it re-launches itself inside WSL to do its work.

Mac

    Not tested

Example

    newgit.pl leoweb ~/leo/public_html

File location info

    if there's no "/" within "gitname", it will put the files into $master_location/gitname (e.g. ~/gitblobs/gitname ) by default

git-meta.pl - solution for preserving all the correct file dates, times, ownership, and access permissions in git, and feature to prepare new git projects using your own machines (instead of a cloud or github)

Note-to-self: remember to do this before push:-

    pod2markdown git-meta.pl README.md