Re: Using GIT to store /etc (Or: How to make GIT store all file permission bits)

David Lang [off-list ref] wrote:

On Tue, 9 Jan 2007, Shawn O. Pearce wrote:

quoted

If the stat data is current it will leave it as-is.  You can force
the index to refresh with `git update-index --refresh` or by running
git status.

I was looking at checkout, not checkin so I'm not understanding how the 
index is involved here.

During checkout we use the index to help us decide if a file needs
to be updated with new content or can be left as-is.  Its a cache of
what version each file is at, and its based on the file stat data
(dev, inode, modification date, etc.) to tell us if the file has
been modified or was last created by Git.  If Git was the one that
last modified the file and the version stored in the index matches
the version needed during the checkout, the file is left alone.
But if anything differs then the file gets overwritten.
 

quoted

quoted

does this answer change if there is a trigger on checkout (to change
permissions or otherwise manipulate the file)?

Only if the trigger does something in addition, like force overwrite
files.  But we don't have a checkout trigger.  So there's no trigger.

we don't have a checkout trigger?

No.

I thought that what Linus had suggested 
for permissions was to have a script triggered on checkin that stored the 
permissions of the files, and a script triggered on checkout that set the 
permissions from the stored file.

Yes.  It is what he suggested.

if there isn't a checkout trigger how would the permissions ever get set?

Someone needs to implement support for a post-checkout trigger.  _Then_
a checkout trigger could perform this action.

in my particular case I'd like to have the checkin run a script that 
produces a 'generic' version of each file,

You may be able to do that in the pre-commit hook by updating the index

-- 
Shawn.