8423fd8281
There are a few reasons it's not a good idea to make
.git* files symlinks, including:
1. It won't be portable to systems without symlinks.
2. It may behave inconsistently, since Git internally may
look at these files from the index or a tree without
bothering to resolve any symbolic links. So it may work
in some settings (where we read from the filesystem)
but not in others).
With some clever code, we could make (2) work. And some
people may not care about (1) if they only work on one
platform. But there are a few security reasons to simply
disallow symlinked meta-files:
a. A symlinked .gitmodules file may circumvent any fsck
checks of the content.
b. Git may read and write from the on-disk file without
sanity checking the symlink target. So for example, if
you link ".gitmodules" to "../oops" and run "git
submodule add", we'll write to the file "oops" outside
the repository.
Again, both of those are problems that _could_ be solved
with sufficient code, but given the current inconsistent
behavior and unportability, we're better off just outlawing
it explicitly.
We'll give the same treatment to .gitmodules, .gitignore,
and .gitattributes. The latter two cannot be used to write
outside the repository (we write them only as part of a
checkout, where we are careful not to follow any symlinks).
But they can still cause a "git clone && git log"
combination to read arbitrary files outside the filesystem.
There's _probably_ nothing too harmful you can do with that,
but it seems questionable (and anyway, they suffer from the
same portability and consistency problems).
Note the slightly tricky call to verify_path() in
update-index's update_one(). There we may not have a mode if
we're not updating from the filesystem (e.g., we might just
be removing the file). Passing "0" as the mode there works
fine; since it's not a symlink, we'll just skip the extra
checks.
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Git - fast, scalable, distributed revision control system
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 (some parts of it are under different licenses, compatible with the GPLv2). It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of hackers around the net.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
Many Git online resources are accessible from https://git-scm.com/ including full documentation and Git related tools.
See Documentation/gittutorial.txt to get started, then see
Documentation/giteveryday.txt for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-.txt for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with man gittutorial or git help tutorial, and the
documentation of each command with man git-<commandname> or git help <commandname>.
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt
(man gitcvs-migration or git help cvs-migration if git is
installed).
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission). To subscribe to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in the body to majordomo@vger.kernel.org. The mailing list archives are available at https://public-inbox.org/git/, http://marc.info/?l=git and other archival sites.
The maintainer frequently sends the "What's cooking" reports that list the current status of various development topics to the mailing list. The discussion following them give a good reference for project status, development direction and remaining tasks.
The name "git" was given by Linus Torvalds when he wrote the very first version. He described the tool as "the stupid content tracker" and the name as (depending on your mood):
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks