Is it safe for multiple users to use a Git repo on a shared network drive?

Question

We're using Eclipse (with the eGit plugin) and I want to host a repo on a shared network drive that several users have write access to.

Can users all point at the same original repo (on the shared drive) or would it be better for each user to clone the repo to their local drive, work off this local version, and push changes to the networked original as required?

Eclipse seems to allow you to "import" (to your Eclipse workspace) a project from a Git repo, but that imported project doesn't seem to be monitored by Git until you choose to "Share project". At this step the working directory becomes that of the repo's working dir for that project. Presumably all users sharing this project would have the same working dir i.e. that of the repo on the shared drive.

I am not clear on the implications of this, but it doesn't seem like a good idea, on first inspection! How will it handle basic problems like 2 users trying to open the same file for editing simultaneously, for instance?

Thanks.

Answer 1

It's better that each person has their own repo.

Clone you current repository as a bare repo and place it on the network drive.

e.g.

git clone --bare /path/to/current/cool_project cool_project.git  

Move the cool_project.git to your network drive, and get everyone to clone from that. Bare repos don't have a working directory, hence the name, so they are safe to push to.

See the chapter 4 of the Git Pro book - Git on a Server, and specifically chapter 4.2 for more details.