version control of /etc with git and git-store-meta

[Steinar Bang]

The subject may seem inappropriate in a mailing list targeted at version
control of the home directory, but as mentioned in the below blogpost I
use git-store-meta together with git for versioning my home directories
as well.
 https://steinar.bang.priv.no/2025/09/16/version-control-of-etc-with-git-and-git-store-meta/

I have used git-store-meta for a while now, closing in on one year and
it has worked well, both for /etc and home directories.

For home directories, the biggest benefit for me has been to remember to
set the access privileges on files that should be restricted from access
by others.

And I also like that the timestamp of the file reflects the last time
the file was touched by a git change (at least until I've edited the
file for some reason).

That, is... I have noticed a small nuisance when using git-store-meta in
home directories.

I have a habit of using fixup commits and autosquash when experimenting
with stuff, making a fixup commit on each fixed point I reach and then
letting git autosquash the fixup commits before pushing.

However the git-store-meta scripts messes up the autosquashing and I
haven't figured out a simple way to work around that yet.

Tips how to work around this are welcome!


- Steinar

(For /etc versioning fixup/autosquash problems are not an issue since
most of the versioning consists of accepting the package maintainers
version of the config file when upgrading and then committing that and
re-applying my existing diffs from the previous version manually)