Version Control for Software Development

• Recall and revert
• Experiment
• Compare
• Distribute updates
• Collaborate
  • Forks
  • Pull requests

Version Control for Data Analysis

• Children
  • Each analysis is a branch

Git

• Started by Linux development community
• Distributed
• Easy branching and merging
• Fast
• Ensures integrity

Branching model for software development

Analysis environment

• Canned analyses with different

  • Data sets
  • Parameters
  • Features

• Frequent revisions

• Huge data sets

Possible solutions

• How to apply features to several branches at once?

  • Cherry-picking schemes

• How to handle big files?

  • Submodules
  • git-annex

Support for Git in R

• dev_tools
• RStudio

system("git rev-parse HEAD")
c3d2756cb4dfdd9adce9b54b72579de20e25a41e

system("git describe --tags")
1.0

system("git remote show origin")
remote origin
Fetch URL: git@versioncontrol.chop.edu:bic/ganguly
Push  URL: git@versioncontrol.chop.edu:bic/ganguly
HEAD branch: master
Remote branch:
master tracked
Local branch configured for 'git pull':
master merges with remote master
Local ref configured for 'git push':
master pushes to master (up to date)