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Git Workspace - Multi Repository Management Tool

• Installation
• Usage
• Getting Started
• Cheat-Sheet
• Python API
• Alternatives

Git Workspace is a lightweight tool for creating and managing workspaces consisting of several interdependent git repositories. Starting from a main repository, Git Workspace discovers dependencies specified in a manifest file, fetching any specified required repositories and assembling them into a single workspace.

👉 You can read more about the used nomenclature in the documentation.

📦 Installation

Git Workspace is written in Python.

Recommended

Please install python and then try:

curl -L https://github.com/pypa/pipx/releases/latest/download/pipx.pyz -o pipx.pyz && python3 pipx.pyz install git-ws

Maybe you need run:

python3 pipx.pyz ensurepath

via pipx

If you already installed pipx (https://pypa.github.io/pipx/installation/) just run:

pipx install git-ws

Maybe you need run:

pipx ensurepath

via pip

pip install git-ws

And that's it! Ideally, if your project also uses Python, we recommend adding Git Workspace as a dependency to it as well so that you can track the exact version of it together with your other dependencies. For example, if you use poetry, add it by running

# Add Git Workspace as a development dependency:
poetry add --group dev git-ws

For testing you can try:

git ws --version

📔 Usage

Git Workspace is integrated into git git ws - this is what you will be using most of the time.

The Manifest

Let's assume we have a project called myapp, which requires a library mylib that is maintained in another git repository. In order to use this project with Git Workspace, myapp needs to provide a so called manifest. A Git Workspace manifest is a simple TOML file - by default called git-ws.toml in the project's root folder - which defines the dependencies a project has as well as some other meta information. A minimal manifest for our project could look like this:

[[dependencies]]
name = "mylib"
url = "[email protected]:example/mylib.git"
revision = "v2.3.4"

If myapp and mylib are stored on the same server (side-by-side), then the manifest can even be simpler:

[[dependencies]]
name = "mylib"
revision = "v2.3.4"

The project will be searched via a relative path (which is either ../mylib or ../mylib.git depending on the main repository's URL). Relative paths are in general useful as they allow using the same protocol for the main repository as well as any of its dependencies.

See the Manifest Documentation for any further details on available options.

The Initial Clone

To build a workspace from a project prepared like that, simply clone it via git ws:

cd $HOME/Projects
git ws clone --update [email protected]:example/myapp.git

👉 Without the --update option, only the main repository will be fetched.

The above will clone the app repository and also the library side-by-side:

ls -a myapp/
# Should print something like
.
..
.git-ws
myapp
mylib

As you can see, besides the two repositories we wanted, there is also a hidden .git-ws folder where the tool stores the needed configuration data.

The git ws clone documentation describes all options.

Initialization

Sometimes there are use cases where using git ws clone cannot be used. For example, when you set up your manifest for the first time or when a CI/CD system creates the initial clone of the main repository, you may need a way to fetch the remaining projects. This can be done by simply running the following within the main project:

git ws init --update

👉 As with git ws clone, without the --update, no dependencies will be fetched.

This command initializes the workspace and just needs to run once. Changes to the manifest require an update operation (see next section) but no re-initialization.

Updating

Another important use case is keeping a workspace up-to-date. Let's say you pull in an update in the main repository, which in turn might cause changes in the manifest to be pulled in as well. Updating the existing workspace is as simple as

# Update the workspace (main and all dependent repositories):
git ws update

# Alternatively, run `git rebase` instead of `git pull` in dependencies:
git ws update --rebase

Non-Git Main Projects

git ws can leave the manifest version control to any other version control system (Subversion, VCS, DesignSync, etc.). Just manage the manifest file git-ws.toml within the version control system of your choice. Run git ws init --update or git ws init --update -M path/to/git-ws.toml in the intended workspace directory.

👉 As before, without the --update, no dependencies will be fetched.

Inside a git clone, git ws init uses the current git project as the main project of the workspace. Outside a git clone, git ws init initializes a workspace without a main project.

👉 There are just two drawbacks of a workspace without a main project:

1. git ws tag has no main project to tag and will fail. Please use git ws manifest freeze.
2. Relative URLs are not supported, as there is no URL to be relative to. Please use remotes:

[[remotes]]
name = "main"
url-base = "[email protected]:your-group"

[[dependencies]]
name = "dep1"
remote = "main"

👍 Getting Started

Please ensure a proper installation.

Lets take a clone of an example project, which does not use git ws yet.

mkdir -p $HOME/Projects/Example-Workspace
cd $HOME/Projects/Example-Workspace
git clone https://github.com/c0fec0de/git-ws-example-one.git
# Cloning into 'git-ws-example-one'...
# remote: Enumerating objects: 3, done.
# remote: Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
# remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
# remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
# Receiving objects: 100% (3/3), done.

Now you should have one git clone in your workspace directory. Let's use it as main project. At first, we need a manifest file git-ws.toml.

cd git-ws-example-one
git ws manifest create
# Manifest 'git-ws.toml' created.
git add git-ws.toml

Now, we need to initialize the workspace

git ws init
# ===== . (MAIN 'git-ws-example-one') =====
# Workspace initialized at '..'.
# Please continue with:
#
#     git ws update
#

The parent directory became the git ws workspace directory . The current git clone is the main project now. git ws suggests to run git ws update. You can try, but nothing will happen yet, as the manifest is quite empty.

Let's add our first dependency git-ws-example-lib, which is located on the same git server. You can manually edit the manifest file git-ws.toml, or you just run

git ws dep add git-ws-example-lib

Feel free to inspect the git-ws.toml file. git ws update will now apply the manifest changes and pull the new dependency:

git ws update
# ===== . (MAIN 'git-ws-example-one', revision='main') =====
# Pulling branch 'main'.
# Already up to date.
# ===== ../git-ws-example-lib ('git-ws-example-lib') =====
# WARNING: Clone git-ws-example-lib has no revision!
# Cloning 'https://github.com/c0fec0de/git-ws-example-lib.git'.
# Cloning into '../git-ws-example-lib'...
# remote: Enumerating objects: 3, done.
# remote: Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
# remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
# remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
# Receiving objects: 100% (3/3), done.

Please note the warning:

# WARNING: Clone git-ws-example-lib has no revision!

It is strongly recommended to specify a default revision for all dependencies. The command

git ws default revision main

solves that for you. Any successive git ws update is now free of this warning:

===== . (MAIN 'git-ws-example-one', revision='main') =====
Pulling branch 'main'.
Already up to date.
===== ../git-ws-example-lib ('git-ws-example-lib', revision='main') =====
Pulling branch 'main'.
Already up to date.

Now you can add, commit and push your changes to the git-ws.toml file. Other colleagues should use now:

cd $HOME/Projects
git ws clone --update YOUR-REPO-URL

# OR

cd $HOME/Projects/Workspace
git clone YOUR-REPO-URL
cd <directory>
git ws init --update

git ws status shows all changes within all git clones in the workspace. git ws add runs likewise the git add operation in the associated git clones. Please see the next section for an overview of all commands.

🕹️ Cheat-Sheet

Initialization

Command	Description
git ws clone URL	Clone git repository from URL as main repository and initialize Git Workspace
git ws init (inside a git clone)	Initialize Git Workspace at parent directory. Use current git clone as main repository
git ws init (outside a git clone)	Initialize Git Workspace at current directory. No main repository.
git ws manifest create	Create well documented, empty manifest

Basic

Command	Description
git ws update	Pull latest changes on main repository and all dependent repositories (clone them if needed)
git ws update --rebase	Same as above, but fetch and rebase instead of pull
git ws status	Run git status on all repositories (displayed paths include the current clone path)
git ws add FILES	Run git add FILE on FILES in the corresponding repositories
git ws reset FILES	Run git reset FILE on FILES in the corresponding repositories. Undo git add
git ws commit FILES -m MESSAGE	Run git commit FILE on FILES in the corresponding repositories
git ws commit -m MESSAGE	Run git commit repositories with changes
git ws checkout FILES	Run git checkout FILE on FILES in the corresponding repositories
git ws checkout	Checkout git revision specified as in the manifest(s) (clone them if needed)

Run Commands on all repositories

Command	Description
git ws push	Run git push on all repositories (in reverse order)
git ws fetch	Run git fetch on all repositories
git ws rebase	Run git rebase on all repositories
git ws pull	Run git pull on all repositories
git ws diff	Run git diff on all repositories
git ws git CMD	Run git CMD on all repositories
git ws foreach CMD	Run CMD on all repositories

Other

Command	Description
git ws dep update -r	Update all manifest files, use current checkout branch, tag or SHA as revision, use current remote origin as url, try to use relative URLs.
git ws manifest freeze	Print The Resolved Manifest With SHAs For All Project Revisions.
git ws manifest path	Print Path to Main Manifest File.
git ws manifest paths	Print Paths to ALL Manifest Files.
git ws manifest resolve	Print The Manifest With All Projects And All Their Dependencies.
git ws manifest upgrade	Update Manifest To Latest Version.
git ws manifest validate	Validate The Current Manifest, Exiting With An Error On Issues.
git ws info main-path	Print Path to Main Git Clone.
git ws info project-paths	Print Paths to all git clones.
git ws info workspace-path	Print Path to Workspace.
git ws info dep-tree	Print Dependency Tree.
git ws info dep-tree --dot | dot -Tpng > dep-tree.png	Draw Dependency Diagram (needs graphviz)

See the command-line interface documentation for any further details.

🐍 Python API

Git Workspace is written in Python. Besides the git ws command line tool, there is also an API which you can use to further automate workspace creation and maintenance. If you are interested, have a look into the API documentation.

🤝 Alternatives

Before writing Git Workspace, we investigated several other existing tools in the hope they would fulfil our needs. In particular, we looked into the following tools and methodologies which are widely used to organize large projects:

• git submodules.
• Google's repo tool.
• The west tool developed in the scope of Zephyr.
• Leaving the pure git domain, one can also use a package manager like conan.
• And lastly, there are also approaches to still pack everything into a large, so called monorepo.

Unfortunately, none of the tools we tested really satisfied us. But hey, as we are developers - why not start our own tool for the purpose?

And that's what we did - Git Workspace is our tool for managing a large workspace consisting of several smaller git projects. Here is how it compares to the other tools we evaluated:

	git submodules	repo	west	Monorepos	git ws
Reusable Components	✅	✅	✅	➖	✅
Ease of Use	➖	✅	✅	✅	✅
Editable Components	➖	✅	➖	✅	✅
Freezing Configurations	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Transitive Dependencies	➖	➖	✅	➖	✅
Relative Dependency Paths	✅	✅	➖	➖	✅
Branches in dependencies	➖	✅	✅	➖	✅
Symlink/Copyfile-Support	➖	✅	➖	➖	✅

👉 Please note that our view on the various features might be biased. As we did, always look at all the options available to you before deciding on one tool or the other. While the other tools in comparison did not model what we needed for our workflow, they might just be what you are looking for.

If you want to learn more, have a look into Why We Started Git Workspace.