DESCRIPTON:

This is a set of python scripts for python 3+ that will facilitate git version control (on a UNIX-based system) of any parallel set of projects or any project in which the git repository is store somewhere other than the .git directory in the root of the repository. It contains some extra code that will help the user identify and track the LaTeX source tree that contains all of the class files, style files, and other stuff related with the LaTeX distribution.

WARNING: AVOID USING PUSH OR PULL COMMANDS ON A PARALLEL CLUSTER OF DIRECTORIES UNLESS YOU HAVE TESTED EVERYTHING CAREFULLY AND HAVE REDUNDANT BACKUPS OF YOUR FILES.

For a non-LaTeX use on a single directory, you could use the lgit system to create a git version control repository for some scripts that you created in the /usr/bin directory, and the repository itself would be stored in the ~/gits/usrbin directory. This means that you will not pollute your /usr/bin directory with .git files. For this use, you might want to force only selected files into the repository by using commands like: lgitw.py "add -f *.sh"

A generic use of this system is to use the lgitw.py command (the 'w' stands for working directory) by navigating to a project directory and running the lgitw.py command (after initialization) and it will save or retrieve files to a remote git repository in ~/gits/project_name. That functionality works by comparing the last part of the directory name (e.g. 'project_name') to a list of registered directory names in ~/.lgitconf. The entry in ~/.lgitconf tells the system where the remote git repository resides (usually in the same directory name under ~/gits). If the working directory is registered, the remote repository is used and the arguments to lgitw.py are processed like regular git commands against that remote repository.

The intended use of this system is that, after initialization, you run commands like: lgit.py "add ." where the argument is passed to git and run on the appropriate set of remote repositories. For example, you might have a directory called /opt/local/bin/texmf-dist, and the repository would be stored in ~/gits/texmf-dist. There might be several other LaTeX directories stored in various locations that will be tracked and tagged with consistent tags so that you can check out a commit by specifying one tag name, and the lgit.py system willl check out all of the directories that are related to the LaTeX system. You might need this to recreate a document that does not work properly now because changes in some mysterious file ruined the compilation of your LaTeX document.

I think I created dist/lgitlib-1.0.tar.gz as a python package that will install three .py files to /usr/bin and install the lgit-lib.py file as a python library (it has been a long time since I fiddled with the install, as of March, 2011). When the user first runs lgit.py, the script should detect that ~/.lgitconf is missing and prompt the user if the script should create the default config file. That process will also execute the texconfig program (part of the LaTeX distribution) as a means of identifying the LaTeX directories to track. If you don't have LaTeX, this part might fail, but it is not a problem if you don't have LaTeX.

INSTALLATION (if you have LaTeX installed)

1) Copy and unpack lgitlib-1.0.tar.gz 2) Change your directory to the place where setup.py is stored: cd thedirectory 3) Run the setup command: sudo python setup.py sdist 4) Note that the setup command should copy lgit.py., lgitw.py, and lgit-commit.py to the /usr/bin directory and install lgitlib.py as a python library. 5) From the command line, run: lgit.py setup That command will initialize the ~/.lgitconf file to point to ~/gits as the remote repository, and it will attempt to identify the directories in your LaTeX tree.

EXAMPLE CONFIG FILE FORMAT (for a LaTeX setup) The following is an example of some settings

[lgit] requireroot = True git_rep_root = ~/gits unlockgitdir = True logfile = False promptonpushpull = True

[lgitfiles] texmfmain = /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf texmfdist = /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist texmflocal = /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local texmfsysvar = /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var texmfsysconfig = /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-config texmfvar = /Users/rehoot/.texmf-var texmfconfig = /Users/rehoot/.texmf-config texmfhome = /Users/rehoot/texmf mktexcnf = /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/web2c

CONFIG SETUP FOR A NON-LATEX INSTALLATION TO TRACK ONE DIRECTORY.

Let's say that you put some custom scripts in the /usr/bin directory, and you want to track them in a git repository, but you don't want to store the .git directory in /usr/bin. You can install lgit and then create an entry called [usrbin] (that will be the name of the subdirectory in the git_rep_root directory) and then identify which directories are sent where by creating a "[usrbin-files]" entry in .lgit and specifying the target subdirectory name (the subdirectory under ~/.gits where the remote repository will be stored): usrbin = /usr/bin. Note that the unlockgitdir option will change the owner of .git repository files to your regular user ID if the lgit commands were run using the root ID. This might be useful to avoid ownership problems when you try to do simple git commands but some of the .git files are owned by root and cannot be changed.

[lgit] requireroot = True git_rep_root = ~/gits unlockgitdir = True logfile = False promptonpushpull = True

[usrbin] debuglvl = 0 debug_prompt = False requireroot = True git_rep_root = ~/gits unlockgitdir = True logfile = False promptonpushpull = True tag_regexp = V[0-9]{4}[-][0-9]{2}[-][0-9]{2}[a-z]{0,2}

[usrbin-files] usrbin = /usr/bin

CONFIG FOR A NON-LATEX INSTALLATION IN WHICH YOU WANT TO TRACK ONE SET OF PARALLEL PROJECTS.
One way to do this would be to copy the example .lgitconf file and then change the paths and key names to suit your needs. For example the first entry under [lgitfiles] is "texmfmain = /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf" where texmfmain is the name of the subdirectory under ~/gits where the repository will be stored and /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf is the full ath of the directory that is being version-controlled.