= Git Metafile Jakub Jirutka https://github.com/jirutka[@jirutka] //custom :name: git-metafile :version: 0.2.2 :gh-name: jirutka/{name} :gh-branch: master :releases-uri: https://github.com/{gh-name}/releases/download/v{version}

ifdef::env-github[] image:https://github.com/{gh-name}/workflows/CI/badge.svg[CI Status, link=https://github.com/{gh-name}/actions?query=workflow%3A%22CI%22] endif::env-github[]

A simple tool for storing and restoring complete files metadata (mode, owner, group) in a git repository. It’s designed especially for versioning /etc.

Metadata is tracked using the .metafile file, which is automatically updated and added to commits. This file is in TSV (tab-separated values) format to be easily readable and diffable.

.Sample .metafile

[source]

%GIT-METAFILE 1

.gitignore 100644 0 0 .metafile 100644 0 0 profile.d 40755 0 0

shadow 100640 0 42

== Installation

=== On Alpine Linux

If you’re using Alpine Linux, you can install https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name={name}[{name}] package from the Alpine’s community repository:

[source, sh, subs="+attributes"] apk add {name}

=== On Arch Linux

If you’re using Arch Linux, you can install https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/{name}[{name}] package from https://aur.archlinux.org/[AUR]:

[source, sh, subs="+attributes"] yay -S {name}

Or use another AUR helper.

=== Using cargo

If you’re a Rust developer, you can build and install https://crates.io/crates/{name}[{name}] from https://crates.io/[crates.io] using cargo:

[source, sh, subs="+attributes"] cargo install {name}

Note that the binary may be bigger than expected because it contains debug symbols. To remove debug symbols and therefore reduce the file size, run strip on the binary.

=== Using pre-built binary

If your package manager doesn’t provide {name}, you can use a pre-built binary.

. Install git (use your system’s package manager).

. Download and extract release tarball for your OS and CPU architecture (pick the right link from the table below): +

[source, sh, subs="verbatim, attributes"]

curl -sSLO {releases-uri}/{name}-{version}-x86_64-linux-musl.tar.gz curl -sSL {releases-uri}/checksums.txt | sha256sum -c --ignore-missing

tar -xzf {name}-{version}-*.tar.gz

. Install {name} somewhere on your PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin: + [source, sh, subs="verbatim, attributes"] install -m 755 {name}-{version}-*/{name} /usr/local/bin/

==== Release tarballs for the latest version

[cols="10,30,10,50", width="100%"] |=== | OS | Architecture | libc | File

.6+| Linux .2+| x8664 | _static* | {releases-uri}/{name}-{version}-x8664-linux.tar.gz[{name}-{version}-x8664-linux.tar.gz]

| glibc | {releases-uri}/{name}-{version}-x8664-linux-gnu.tar.gz[{name}-{version}-x8664-linux-gnu.tar.gz]

| aarch64 (ARM 64bit) | static* | {releases-uri}/{name}-{version}-aarch64-linux.tar.gz[{name}-{version}-aarch64-linux.tar.gz]

| armv7 (ARM 32bit hard-float) | static* | {releases-uri}/{name}-{version}-armv7-linux.tar.gz[{name}-{version}-armv7-linux.tar.gz]

| ppc64le (PowerPC LE) | glibc | {releases-uri}/{name}-{version}-powerpc64le-linux-gnu.tar.gz[{name}-{version}-powerpc64le-linux-gnu.tar.gz]

| riscv64gc (RISC-V) | glibc | {releases-uri}/{name}-{version}-riscv64gc-linux-gnu.tar.gz[{name}-{version}-riscv64gc-linux-gnu.tar.gz]

| macOS | x8664 (Intel 64bit) | | {releases-uri}/{name}-{version}-x8664-apple-darwin.tar.gz[{name}-{version}-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz] |===

* static binaries are statically linked with http://www.musl-libc.org/[musl libc], so they work on every Linux system (distro) regardless of used libc.

=== From source tarball

. Install git (use your system’s package manager).

. Download and unpack the tarball: +

[source, sh, subs="+attributes"]

wget https://github.com/{gh-name}/archive/v{version}/{name}-{version}.tar.gz tar -xzf {name}-{version}.tar.gz

cd {name}-{version}

. Build {name} using cargo: + [source, sh] cargo build --release --locked

. Grab the binary from target/release/{name} and install it somewhere on your PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin: + [source, sh, subs="+attributes"] install -D -m755 target/release/{name} -t /usr/local/bin/

== How to use

To automatically record files attributes on every commit and restore them on every checkout, set up git hooks:

[source, sh]

cat >> .git/hooks/pre-commit <

!/bin/sh

git-metafile save && git add .metafile EOF

chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

cat >> .git/hooks/post-checkout <

!/bin/sh

git-metafile apply EOF

chmod +x .git/hooks/post-checkout

ln -s post-checkout .git/hooks/post-rewrite

This should work for all basic operations, so you don’t need to think about it anymore. However, you have to be careful when rebasing – no hook is run when git checkouts files during rebase and before committing changes done in rebase mode!

To record changes or restore files attributes manually, you can run git metafile save or git metafile apply respectively.

== License

This project is licensed under http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT/[MIT License]. For the full text of the license, see the link:LICENSE[LICENSE] file.