GIT - the stupid content tracker

"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
   mispronunciation 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

This is a stupid (but extremely fast) directory content manager.

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GIT - the stupid content tracker

Linus Torvalds, 2005

README, from the first commit, 7 April 2005

Excerpt. The complete work is at the source.

In April 2005 the Linux kernel lost its free licence to BitKeeper, and Torvalds wrote a replacement in four days. The first commit, on 7 April, carried the message "Initial revision of 'git', the information manager from hell" and a README that opened like this.

The commit held eleven files. The design underneath is in the word "content": every file, directory, and commit is stored under the SHA-1 hash of its contents, so the history is a graph of immutable objects and a repository can be copied in full to any machine. That design is why git could be self-hosting on the day it was written and why, twenty years later, nearly all software is kept in it. The README is here because of its voice. A tool that now underlies the world's code began as a four-day hack, named in irritation, and said so.

Source: github.com
Rights: Git, GPL-2.0; excerpt from the README of commit e83c5163 reproduced with attribution