Under the hood

Under the hood of a Git system

Approach to remember changes

Even though Git’s user interface is fairly similar to these other VCSs, Git stores and thinks about information in a very different way. The major difference between Git and any other VCS (Subversion and friends included) is the way Git thinks about its data.

Delta-based approach

Conceptually, most other systems store information as a list of file-based changes. These other systems (CVS, Subversion, Perforce, Bazaar, and so on) think of the information they store as a set of files and the changes made to each file over time (this is commonly described as delta-based version control).

CVS approach

Snapshots based approach

Git doesn’t think of or store its data this way. Instead, Git thinks of its data more like a series of snapshots of a miniature filesystem. With Git, every time you commit, or save the state of your project, Git basically takes a picture of what all your files look like at that moment and stores a reference to that snapshot.

To be efficient, if files have not changed, Git doesn’t store the file again, just a link to the previous identical file it has already stored. Git thinks about its data more like a stream of snapshots.

Nearly Every Operation Is Local

Most operations in Git need only local files and resources to operate — generally no information is needed from another computer on your network. This is because you have the entire history of the project right there on your local disk, most operations seem almost instantaneous.

If you’re used to a CVCS where most operations have that network latency overhead, this aspect of Git will make you think that the gods of speed have blessed Git with unworldly powers!

For example, to browse the history of the project, Git doesn’t need to go out to the server to get the history and display it for you — it simply reads it directly from your local database. This means you see the project history almost instantly.

This also means that there is very little you can’t do if you’re offline or off VPN. If you get on an airplane or a train and want to do a little work, you can commit happily (to your local copy, remember?) until you get to a network connection to upload!

Git Has Integrity

Everything in Git is checksummed before it is stored and is then referred to by that checksum. This means it’s impossible to change the contents of any file or directory without Git knowing about it. This functionality is built into Git at the lowest levels and is integral to its philosophy.

Git Generally Only Adds Data

When you do actions in Git, nearly all of them only add data to the Git database. It is hard to get the system to do anything that is not undoable or to make it erase data in any way.