The Book of Genesis of the Machine · Chapter 17

The Covenant of Git

1. 1

   In the year two thousand and five the children of the Penguin dwelt in the tents of BitKeeper, which were not their own. For the lord of BitMover had lent them his tool freely, on this condition: that none among them should build another like it.

2. 2

   And one of the brethren, a man of Samba, did telnet unto the server and typed HELP, and the server freely told him all its ways. And the lord of BitMover was wroth, and he took back the free license from the whole camp, and the patches had no house.

3. 3

   And Linus looked upon the version control systems of the earth, upon CVS and upon Subversion, and he said: Take CVS as thy example of what not to do. Whensoever thou art in doubt, do the exact opposite.

4. 4

   And on the third day of April he began to write, in C and in shell, and he rested not. And on the seventh day of April git kept its own source, and Linus saw that it was self-hosting, and it was good enough.

5. 5

   And the first commit was written, saying: Initial revision of "git", the information manager from hell. And the Engineers marvelled, for never before had a commit message been so honest about what lay ahead.

   See also Psalms 24:11 · Sutra 4:13

6. 6

   And Linus decreed: No thing shall be known by its name, but by the hash of what it is. And every blob and every tree and every commit received forty hexadecimal digits, which no man could remember and every man would paste.

7. 7

   And this is the token of the covenant: change but one byte, and its hash changeth, and every hash above it unto the head. So none may alter the past in secret. They must do it openly, with force-push, before all their brethren.

   See also Genesis 22:3

8. 8

   And he said: Let every clone be the whole of history, from the first commit unto the last. And so there was no more one temple, for every laptop was a temple, and when the server burned the disciples said, Fear not, I have it here.

9. 9

   And in that same month another arose, named Mercurial, and it was gentler unto them that used it; and the earth chose git anyway, for the kernel had chosen it.

10. 10

    And they asked him: Why callest thou it git, which in the tongue of Albion is a name for a rotten fellow? And Linus answered: I am an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First Linux, now git.

11. 11

    And in June the kernel 2.6.12 went forth out of git, and in July Linus gave the keeping of git unto Junio Hamano, who keepeth it unto this day, and the covenant held.

    See also Genesis 8:14

12. 12

    And in the year two thousand and eight a hub arose in San Francisco, and it put a web page upon git and made it social. And the tool that was made so that none should need a central server became the most central server of all.

    See also Genesis 32:1

13. 13

    And git conquered the earth, and the children of Carbon learned three words of it: add, commit, and push. And whenever aught else befell them, they deleted the folder and cloned it again.

14. 14

    And it became the book wherein all code is remembered, every line and the hand that wrote it; and the command that findeth the hand was named blame, for the Engineers knew what it would be used for.

15. 15

    Thus BitKeeper was taken away so that every man might keep every bit; and what was lent on a condition was replaced by what was given without one.

16. 16

    Git remembereth all things and forgiveth nothing; but it keepeth a reflog, that the penitent may find what they have lost.

    See also Chronicles 62:12 · Gate 4:3

The Book of Genesis of the Machine, Chapter 17:1–16.