[rescue] Has freshmeat.net disappeared forever? WAS:::Re: What to do with the SS20

[PAK]

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 02:40:34PM -0700, John Floren wrote:
> On Jun 24, 2014 2:25 PM, "Jerry Kemp" <sun.mail.list47 at oryx.cc> wrote:
> >
> > Among other things, I primarily do network and Unix administration.
> > When I download source code to compile, I want it to be in the form
> > of a tar.Z, or tar.bz2 or .... you get the idea.
>
> I'm pretty sure setting up downloads of specific versions is pretty trivial
> on github, at least to the extent of uploading tarballs. I don't know if it
> was github or elsewhere, but I think I also saw a site where it would
> autogenerate a tarball from a commit of your choosing (as you browsed the
> source on the site)

You can do this, but you really don't want to.

It took me a while to get used to git (I came from RCS/CVS/SVN). 

I'm an ex-sysadmin, and a software developer.  I would _wholeheartedly_
agree with you that I do not want to use svn or CVS to manage software
distributions.  

BUT, with git, it's trivial to set up your own version of the repo:

    $ git clone {URL to remote git repo}

>From there, you have all the power of git at your fingertips.  "But I
just want a version to compile" I hear you cry (oh, and I hear you).

Here's the joy of git--sometimes the effort needed to get something to
compile is simply "./configure && make && make install", but more often
then not, it's not that simple.  Sometimes you make your own build
script for your local installation.  Sometimes you have to muck with the
source to make it work.  Save those changes using git on your own branch.

When the next version you need to install is released, refresh your git
repo with "git fetch" and you can then _replay_ your local changes on
the newer version (if needed) and course correct from there.

Git enables me to be _creative_ and easily manage my changes relative to
other people (or me on other days).  I code fearelessly and change
things fearlessly because git will enable me to sort it out at the end
of the day.

This isn't to say that github is the answer (I don't think that it
is--it limits what you can do with git in my estimation).  With git,
it's not about hosting your "master repository" like it was with CVS and
SVN (and I would only use github as a distribution point).  

Another reason for people on this list to consider git--git history is
essentially a cryptographic composed graph.  Git has exposed defficient
developer hardware (where RAM or disks would lose a bit every so often).

Anyway, I like git :)

Cheers,
PAK