Version Control with Git

Chapter 12. Repository Management

This chapter presents two approaches to managing and publishing repositories for cooperative development. One approach centralizes the repository; the other distributes the repository. Each solution has its place, and which is right for you and your project depends on your requirements and philosophy.

However, no matter which approach you adopt, Git implements a distributed development model. For example, even if your team centralizes the repository, each developer has a complete, private copy of the repository and can work independently. The work is distributed, albeit coordinated through a central, shared repository. The repository model and the development model are orthogonal characteristics.

Repository Structure

The Shared Repository Structure

Some version control systems use a centralized server to maintain a repository. In this model, every developer is a client of the server, which maintains the authoritative version of the repository. Given the server’s jurisdiction, almost every versioning operation must contact the server to obtain or update repository information. Thus, for two developers to share data, all information must pass through the centralized server; no direct sharing of data between developers is possible.

With Git, in contrast, a shared, authoritative, centralized repository is merely a convention. Each developer still has a clone of the depot’s repository, so there’s no need for every request or query to go to a centralized ...