Committed by Linus Torvalds!
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
185 points (98.4% liked)
Today I Learned
30274 readers
467 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Git really is one of those things that just feel like it was pulled from the fabric of the universe, the basic way it works feels so cromulent and obvious in hindsight.
I just wish we'd normalize using it for everyday stuff, a while ago i decided to publish the modpack i'd been fiddling on and almost immediately i realized how much more reliable everything became, no longer did i worry about fucking something up and making the whole thing unusable!
And obviously actual version management prevents final_final_(1).odt situations
I use Git for all my notes. It's crazy that it's still tied to software dev for no reason.
I keep a local git for docker compose and env files (I have a single macro config for all my services). It has saved me a lot of time.
I love I can just init a repo anywhere, no service required.
I like how cromulent wasn't a word
But it is now? Did I just witness creation?
Simpsons created it. In the episode where jebediah springfields quote "a noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" is scrutinized for "embiggens" not being a word. They say it's a perfectly cromulent word. Which itself was not a word, but given the context has a clear meaning. And people decided to start using it as a joke, and then enough people used it, it eventually became real.
Technically all words work that way, but this feels just that little bit more artificial. There wasn't really a need for it, we have words for that context already, so it wouldn't have naturally spread. But it's still fun to have watched it happen over time, knowing it was probably gonna happen even though it shouldn't have.
Edit: the details may not be exactly right, it's been nigh-on 30 years now since I've seen that episode, but that's the gist of it, from what I recall.
This is exactly my understanding of it
personally i think it fills a nice niche, it's close to "satisfactory" but more positive.
So he used GIT while developing GIT?
It was probably initially developed using a different VCS (e.g., svn), and when git became feature-complete that "svn" history was imported into git.
Most likely would have been BitKeeper. Torvalds famously despised SVN.
That first commit is only ~1000loc and reads and writes commits. It was almost certainly not using version control first.
I've initialized repos and committed smaller first commits though. I'm not sure I follow this argument.
It took about a day to get to be βself-hostingβ so that I could start committing things into git using git itself, so the first day or so is hidden, but everything else is there.
Yeah I mean I'm not saying it's not true, I'm just not following your argument for why it's true.
Context. I was replying to this comment claiming it was βprobablyβ using VCS.
It was probably initially developed using a different VCS (e.g., svn), and when git became feature-complete that "svn" history was imported into git.
I thought explaining it was only a tiny project at that point would be enough.
I know the context, I followed the thread, and I understood your argument to be that it was only a small project (you mentioned LOC).
But then I presented a counter argument that I've made repos for less code than that, so I don't see how that's an argument for "obviously" not using a VCS.
I sometimes feel like people throw around the term "obvious". π€·ββοΈ
To me it wasn't obvious because of my personal experience.
You didn't use that term, but I feel like you presented your argument as an obvious fact. If you know what I mean. π
Good point.
Well worth a read. I like that it gives a better intro into git than any doc page. Also, props for those short and to the point source files. Only downside is not enough comments in sources.
Thatβs damn cool. Thanks
Somehow I never even wondered what git stands for. If someone was to ask me I probably wouldβve guessed βget it?β
At least it didnβt end up being called geddit though. Can you imagine?
For the people out there, who, like me, started wondering too, this is quoted from the readme:
"git" can mean anything, 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 mispronounciation 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
pronounciation
π¬ Wish I could amend that commit, just a teensy bit.
I loled