Re: Can git be tweaked to work cross-platform, on FAT32?

Hi,

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006, Florian v. Savigny wrote:

DO your answers imply that it is NOT possible (by "possible", I mean of 
course: possible without re-programming the source code ;-)) to compile 
git in a way that would enable it to work DIRECTLY with a local 
repository on FAT32 from both Windows and Linux (or, perhaps more 
simple: to work directly with a repository on FAT32 under Linux)?

My answer was not so clear...

Question: Is it possible to use git on a FAT32 filesystem?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is it possible to access such a repository from both Linux and 
Windows?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is there anything that could cause problems?

Answer: Yes. The working directory is a problem.

	- Symlinks for example. Don't use them.
	- Umlauts: don't use them.
	- The index has to be updated, since the stat information is 
	  unlikely to match. A simple "git status" should suffice, though.
	- Permissions: the permission handling of Linux and Windows are
	  quite different. If you initialize the repository with Cygwin,
	  it automatically sets core.filemode=false, if you initalize(d) 
	  with Linux, you have to adjust manually.

Question: Are there other shortcomings to this approach?

Answer: Definitely. Most are only annoying (like the performance of FAT32, 
which literally sucks), but some are different: for example, if you 
compile things in the working directory, you will be unhappy.

3. ad Johannes: This does sound quite simple and straightforward. If I
   got it right, it would involve having one repository on a, say,
   ext2 partition to work with under Linux, and one on a FAT32
   partition to work with under Windows, and syncing the two after
   booting (fetching from FAT32) and before shutting down (pushing to
   FAT32) Linux.

This is how I'd do it.

   It is quite interesting, BTW, that git can /sync/ with a repository
   on FAT32 under Linux, but not work with it.

You can. But I wouldn't. I like to keep separations clean and obvious.

Ciao,