Version Control with Git, 3rd Edition

Chapter 12. Repository Management

This chapter describes how to publish Git repositories and presents approaches for managing and publishing repositories for cooperative development. It is very discussion oriented and draws together possible schools of thoughts one could adopt when managing Git repositories.

We start by explaining how you can set up and configure your own Git server and expose access for published repositories via available protocols. Next, we discuss possible ways you can structure your repository for either central or distributed access according to your development needs. Following this, we then share some rules of thumb for you to consider in your development journey with Git repositories. Building on this, we cover the importance of understanding the possible roles of developers, mainly the presence of role duality in a developer–maintainer relationship. We also discuss techniques you can leverage when you need to work with multiple distributed repositories, and we conclude the chapter by sharing some context around the concept of forking a repository.

A Word About Servers

The word server is used liberally and loosely to mean a variety of different things. Neither Git nor this book is an exception, so let’s clarify what a server may or may not be, what it might or might not do, and how Git might use one.

Technically, Git doesn’t need a server. In contrast to other version control systems, where a centralized server is often required, there is no need ...