ferrit

ferrit is a minimal Git-like version control system written in Rust for learning purposes.

Currently implemented:

• ferrit init — initializes a new repository by creating a .git folder with the required structure
• ferrit cat-file -p <hash> — reads and prints the contents of a Git object
• ferrit hash-object -w <file> — computes the SHA-1 hash of a file, formats it as a Git blob object, and writes it to .git/objects/

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Usage

Build

cargo build

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Initialize a repository

./target/debug/ferrit init

This creates a .git directory with:

• objects/
• refs/heads/
• A HEAD file pointing to refs/heads/main

The folder is now recognized by git status.

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Create a Git object from a file

echo -n "hello world" > hello.txt
./target/debug/ferrit hash-object -w hello.txt

This prints the SHA-1 hash and stores the compressed object in .git/objects.

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Inspect a Git object

./target/debug/ferrit cat-file -p <hash>

It prints the original content of the object. Example output:

hello world

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Project Goals

• Learn how Git works under the hood
• Build Git features from scratch using Rust
• Mimic Git CLI behavior step-by-step

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