Menu
I would like to have a git repository that consists mainly of binary files.
I need to keep track of the changed, added and removed files to the repository, but I don't want for git to version the content of the files themselves.
In other words, I just need for git to keep track of changes (change log), but not the content.
Is this even possible with git?
Should I be using something else for this?
273
You should use Git LFS if you have large files or binary files to store in Git repositories. That's because Git is decentralized. So, every developer has the full change history on their computer.
One of the advantages of binary files is that they are more efficient. In terms of memory, storing values using numeric formats such as IEEE 754, rather than as text characters, tends to use less memory. In addition, binary formats also offer advantages in terms of speed of access.
A binary file is one that does not contain text. It is used to store data in the form of bytes, which are typically interpreted as something other than textual characters. These files usually contain instructions in their headers to determine how to read the data stored in them.
It's important to never commit binary files because once you've commit them they are in the repository history and are very annoying to remove. You can delete the files from the current version of the project - but they'll remain in the repository history, meaning that the overall repository size will still be large.
Mined from @Tobu's answer to this related question:
To version and propagate binary files without actually storing them in git, try git-annex.
124
If you don't want to store the bins, than you could use a binary diff tool on the files, then commit the output into version control. Any text change log entries can then be entered in to the commit message.
28
git is a content tracker, so if you don't want to track content it sounds like it's the wrong tool for the job. I'm not sure exactly how you would track changes to files without tracking their content, though.
32
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With
