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Comparison: Tiny Git vs. Git

tiny-git is designed to be an educational content-addressed version-control system inspired by Git. This document explains where tiny-git is intentionally compatible with Git and where it diverges for architectural simplicity.

1. Where Tiny Git Matches Git (Intentional Compatibility)

To ensure that concepts learned in tiny-git transfer directly to Git, the following formats and semantics match real Git:

Layer / Feature Tiny Git (tiny-git) Real Git (git) Compatibility Notes
Object Hashing <type> <size>\0<content> + SHA-1 <type> <size>\0<content> + SHA-1 / SHA-256 Blob, Tree, and Commit payloads produce identical SHA-1 digests for standard known vectors.
Directory Sharding objects/xx/yyyy... objects/xx/yyyy... Loose objects use 2-character prefix sharding.
Commit Headers tree, parent, author, \n\n tree, parent, author, committer, \n\n Supports 0, 1, or multiple parent headers for merge commits.
Symbolic References ref: refs/heads/<branch> ref: refs/heads/<branch> .tinygit/HEAD matches .git/HEAD syntax.
Detached HEAD 40-hex SHA-1 in HEAD 40-hex SHA-1 in HEAD Detached HEAD points directly to a commit hash.
Unified Diff --- a/file / +++ b/file --- a/file / +++ b/file Standard line-level unified diff formatting.
Conflict Markers <<<<<<< HEAD / ======= / >>>>>>> <<<<<<< HEAD / ======= / >>>>>>> Line-level 3-way merge conflict hunk markers.
Ancestry Syntax ~N, ^N, HEAD~1^2 ~N, ^N, HEAD~1^2 Standard parent indexing and ancestry chains.

2. Where Tiny Git Diverges (Educational Simplicity)

Layer / Feature Tiny Git (tiny-git) Real Git (git) Architectural Reason
Index Serialization Human-readable JSON (.tinygit/index) Custom binary index format (.git/index) A JSON array is inspectable with standard text editors and debuggers without needing binary parsers.
Packfile Compression Loose objects only (objects/xx/yy...) Packfiles (.pack) and index files (.idx) Packfile delta compression adds significant complexity; loose objects demonstrate content-addressing clearly.
Symlinks & Submodules Unsupported (100644, 100755, 040000 only) Supported (120000 symlinks, 160000 gitlinks) Eliminates symlink path-traversal vulnerabilities and cross-platform symlink edge cases.
Networking & Remotes Local repositories only (init, add, commit...) Rich remote transport (clone, fetch, push...) Local version-control correctness is hardened first before introducing network protocols.