[Beowulf] Thoughts on git?

[Peter Clapham]

+1

Also add in the potential for CI and CD as part of the hooks within git and you have a powerful method to ensure changes to your code are unlikely to impact your environment.

By integrating with gitlab (etc) a GUI can also help your servicedesk accept proposals and have the updates then deploy as a part of an automated workload.

Rollback, backup, remove cursing of former self (or at least reduce its potential), making others live simper and reducing potential risks are all good things that can come of using a solid versioning tool.

Pete

From: Beowulf <beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org> on behalf of John Hearns via Beowulf <beowulf at beowulf.org>
Reply-To: John Hearns <hearnsj at googlemail.com>
Date: Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at 4:41 PM
To: Beowulf Mailing List <beowulf at beowulf.org>
Subject: Re: [Beowulf] Thoughts on git?

Faraz, I use git every day.
We have Bitbucket here, and have linked the repositories to Jira for our sprint planning and kanban.

Anyway - you say something very relevant  "I have never had a need to go back to an older version of my script."
It is not only about rollback to older versions. If you are workign in a small team, I think you really have to have the production version of scripts defined somewhere.
For instance I work with PBS Hooks, which are Python scripts. I need to know which are the ones in use on our PBS server.
(Yes -you can do a fetch of the script from the PBS server. I know how to do that).
But it is cleaner and easier to point towards the master of that repo and say - these are the PBS hooks we are using right now.
I can then create a branch and go off to implemen tchanges on our test cluster - knowing that the master branch remains untouched.
When we are happy I get a colleague to to a merge.

Regarding the command line of git, I do agree that it can be confusing.
I discovered the Atom editor, which has an in-build GUI for git.
https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/quick-tip-how-to-use-atom-as-a-git-gui--cms-21073

Also now start to think about disaster recovery, and software defined infrastructure.

Firstly, lets us be extreme. Your data centre burns down. Your management are breathing down your neck. They want the service back up and running.
Funds magically appear, and a bunch of servers appears on the loading dock of the new data centre.
Are you confident those scripts can be integrated onto the new setup?

Also the trend now is to software defined infrastructures. You stand up new nodes and configure them using defined rules.
You may want to copy some of those scripts onto the nodes - lets' say they are PBS hooks, or pre job healthchecks.
I admit we are nowhere near doing that effictively, but it is our goal.


































On 19 December 2017 at 17:11, Faraz Hussain <info at feacluster.com<mailto:info at feacluster.com>> wrote:
I am curious what people think of git. On one hand everyone seems to be using it and proclaiming its virtues. On the other hand it seems way overkill for how the majority of people code.

I maintain dozens of scripts to manage various HPC environments . None are more than a few hundred lines long. To do backups of scripts, I just copy them to some backup folder. Occasionally I might tar them up and copy them to a different server. I have never had a need to go back to an older version of my script.

So I tried to learn git but find it very confusing. It seems designed for teams of developers working on some million+ line of code project. For my rinky-dinky scripts it just adds a lot of confusion. It seems I need to "commit" to using git everyday in order for it to be effective. Otherwise, use it or lose it.

Should I force myself to use git everyday? Or maybe find some incrementally better way to manage backups of my scripts?

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