GitHub Desktop -- Virtual Repos

GitHub Desktop fork with experimental support for "virtual repos".

Virtual Repos???

Virtual repos tries to capture the idea of a git repository that exists on an external filesystem.

This could be used when:

• Editing code over an SSH connection
• Using GitHub Codespaces

Configuring a virtual repo

Currently only ssh-based virtual repos are supported.

When adding a virtual repo, use

ssh::<host>::<repo-path>, e.g. ssh::cs::/workspaces/desktop

Where in this case ~/.ssh/config includes

Host cs
  User codespace
  Hostname localhost
  Port 2222
  NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost yes
  StrictHostKeyChecking no
  ControlMaster auto
  ControlPath ~/.ssh/ssh-cs-persist
  ControlPersist 5m

and the git repository is at /workspaces/desktop on the remote host.

It must be the case that ssh <host> (ssh cs in this case) will log in without any need for user input, as this is how commands are run on the remote host. To verify your config you can use:

ssh cs echo howdy

and ensure that howdy is returned without a password prompt or similar.

N.B. The ControlMaster, ControlPath, ControlPersist sections allow multiplexing commands over a single TCP connection, vastly improving the usability!

Release Process

Currently a bit of a mess, but here it is:

1. yarn build:prod
2. yarn package
3. Follow DMG build instructions.

Attach the generated DMG file to the release.

License

MIT

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