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gitviz

Visualize git repositories as they change, live in the browser.

gitvize screenshot

Why?

gitviz might be useful as a teaching tool for git.

It draws graphviz graphs on <canvas> elements, and updates them as you modify the target git repository on the fly.

Requirements

You need Python, Node.js, npm, and a git repository.

Installation

# get code
git clone git://github.com/kevinw/gitviz.git

# start the webserver
cd gitviz
./run-server PATH_TO_REPOS # where PATH_TO_REPOS is the path above your repositories

# see live graphs in the browser
open http://localhost:3000/reponame

Libraries

gitviz is just glue around lots of great libraries:

  • dulwich reads your git repositories as graphs
  • pydot emits those graphs as DOT language
  • canviz draws DOT language as visual graphs in <canvas> tags in the browser
  • express serves the webpage showing the graph
  • socket.io notifies the browser in realtime when the graph changes

TODO

  • The node library "watch" we're using uses polling under the hood. There are definitely better alternatives that hook into filesystem events.
  • Animate the graph when it changes.
  • Show working copy modifications. Maybe an asterisk next to the blobs that differ?
  • Eliminate bottlenecks for non-toy-sized repositories, and make them navigable/intelligible in some way.
  • Make the graph interactive, or somehow have each node show the git command that made it.