Dolt is Git for Data: a SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge

It’s a bit slower, but smart use of partial/shallow clones can address performance degradation on large repositories over time. You just need to take care of the transformation between “physical” trees/blobs and “logical” objects in your dataset (which may not have 1:1 mapping, as having physical layer more granular reduces likelihood of merge conflicts).

I’m also following Pijul, which seems very promising in regards to versioning data—I believe they might introduce primitives allowing to operate on changes in actual data structures rather than between lines in files, like with Git.

Add to that sound theory of patches, and that’s a definite win over Git (or Doit for that matter, which seems to be same old Git but for SQL).

Re: Dolt is Git for Data: a SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge

#5

Post by Klwohu » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

Problematic name, could become a millstone on the neck of the developer far into the future.

Re: Dolt is Git for Data: a SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge

#6

Post by maest » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

Klwohu wrote: post #5

Problematic name, could become a millstone on the neck of the developer far into the future.

It was most likely picked as an analogy to "git".

Re: Dolt is Git for Data: a SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge

#7

Post by ademarre » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:50 PM UTC

Klwohu wrote: post #5

Problematic name, could become a millstone on the neck of the developer far into the future.

Agreed. I couldn't immediately see if it was "DOLT" or "do it", as in "just do it". It's the former.

Re: Dolt is Git for Data: a SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge

#8

Post by twobitshifter » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:51 PM UTC

This is cool, but the parent dolthub project is even cooler! Dolthub.com

Re: Dolt is Git for Data: a SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge

#9

Post by justincormack » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:53 PM UTC

I collected all the git for data open source projects I could find a few months back, there have been a bunch of interesting approaches https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jGQY_wjj7dYVne6toyzm...

Re: Dolt is Git for Data: a SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge

#10

Post by skybrian » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:54 PM UTC

bitslayer wrote: post #2

Is it for versions of the database design or versions of the data?

Both. Schema changes are versioned like everything else. But depending on what the change is, it might make merges difficult.

(I haven’t used it; I just read the blog.)