Building Git

What Hacker News says

1. hmpcApr 2026
   Similarly, if not performance-focused, I can wholeheartedly recommend Building Git[0], which walks you through building your own git clone in Ruby (although the language is immaterial).

   [0]: https://shop.jcoglan.com/building-git/

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2. xqb64Jul 2025
   There is also James Coglan's "Building git" book that I just went through and can vouch for its quality.
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3. xqb64Jul 2025
   This is a Python port of the git(1) clone that can be found in James Coglan's amazing book, "Building git".

   I've definitely had a blast putting it together, and I also learned a lot, both about git and about Python.

   I highly recommend the book if you're up for a challenge. I'd say it's in the same ballpark as "Crafting interpreters", "Writing a C compiler", and I imagine "Building a debugger" (still haven't gone through this one, but it does look promising if you're like me and love this sort of thing).

   P.S.

   I'm always on the lookout for similar "from scratch" books (and other types of resources, more generally), so please shoot if you're aware of any that I'm not.

   Thanks

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4. kaycey2022Dec 2024
   Does nobody on this forum read technical books anymore? I read building git by James Coglan, and it was pretty good.
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5. NukedOneDec 2023
   Building git

   https://shop.jcoglan.com/building-git/

   Build a blockchain from scratch in go

   https://web3coach.gumroad.com/l/build-a-blockchain-from-scra...

   Compiling to assembly from scratch

   https://keleshev.com/compiling-to-assembly-from-scratch/

   If anyone knows of similar books, don't hesitate to comment below.

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6. semiquaverDec 2023
   If this post interests you, James Coglan’s Building Git is an extremely thorough book-length treatment of the same concept. Highly recommended for learning git internals in depth.

   https://shop.jcoglan.com/building-git/

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