[[meta title="Git"]]

[Git][git] is a distributed revison control system originally developed for
the Linux kernel. Ikiwiki supports storing a wiki in git.

[git]: http://git.or.cz/

Ikiwiki can run as a `post-update` hook to update a wiki whenever commits
come in. When running as a [[cgi]] with Git, ikiwiki automatically
commits edited pages, and uses the Git history to generate the
[[RecentChanges]] page.

## git repository setup

When using Git, you probably want to set up two repositories, of which
one should be bare (meaning that it does not have a working tree
checked out), and the other one with a working tree will be used as
ikiwiki's srcdir for compiling the wiki. [[ikiwiki-makerepo]] can automate
setting this up. Using a pair of repositories isn't the most obvious set up,
but it works the best for typical ikiwiki use.
[[tips/Laptop_wiki_with_git]] describes a different way to set up ikiwiki
and git.

It is **paramount** that you **never** push to the non-bare repository
([this FAQ entry explains why](http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitFaq#head-b6a3d85f677763313159eb39f7dbf4579d4ee28b)).
Instead, if you want to work on the wiki from a remote machine, clone
the bare repository, using either the `git` transport (if available), or
`ssh`.

The ikiwiki `post-commit` hook should be put in the bare repository.