GitSwarm 2016.3-2 Documentation


Help / Workflow / Helix Mirroring / Overview

Overview

Helix Git Fusion is a Git remote repository service that uses the Helix Versioning Engine (P4D) as its back end. Users interact with Git Fusion as they would with any other remote Git repository.

It takes just a few steps to mirror your existing Git Fusion projects into GitSwarm. Additionally, for brand new projects; GitSwarm can automatically configure a new Git Fusion repository and use it to mirror your work into P4D.

Helix Mirroring Overview

Helix Mirroring allows you to specify the depot paths within the Helix Versioning Engine where the mirrored files from Git repository branches should appear. When you want to map arbitrary Git branches, you can employ a template that provides "convention-based" mirroring.

Once imported, GitSwarm keeps the Git Fusion project up to date using bi-directional mirroring; any changes pushed to a GitSwarm project are mirrored to Git Fusion, and changes within the Git Fusion project (even if initiated within the Helix Versioning Engine) are mirrored into the GitSwarm project.

Mirroring your repositories to a Helix Versioning Engine through Git Fusion makes it easy to use either Git or Helix applications to work on the same set of files. Helix provides simplified interfaces which are easier for some team members to learn and use than Git.

With Helix's exclusive file locking support, teams working with unmergable digital assets can collaborate without overwriting each other's work. Git Fusion respects these locks and prevents Git pushes from overwriting locked files.

Additionally, mirroring through Git Fusion allows "narrow cloning," where you create small Git repositories that are subsets of the much larger Helix Versioning Engine monorepo. Git repositories perform best when the repository is at most 1 GB in size, whereas a Helix Versioning Engine can store petabytes of data.

Note: GitSwarm mirroring requires multiple system accounts.