Show HN: Sir – Git-diff-able JSON database on yer filesystem

Is sqlite not diffable?

SQLite database files themselves are binary, which typically isn't diff-able with standard tools, so (eg) git wouldn't show you anything useful unless you configure a special tool for diffing sqlite files.

And in fact, there is a sqlitediff.exe tool for diffing sqlite databases: https://sqlite.org/sqldiff.html

But, it would still be a bummer to store them in git because git won't efficiently track changes between sqlite databases, it'll just add the whole binary blob on every commit. oof.

This might be a silly question, but is there a reason why git can't also diff binary files? If I have a huge binary file and I change a few bytes in the middle, what's stopping Git just checking that in as a diff? I don't see what's so special about text...

[edit] just did some research and it looks like Git will store the delta of a binary file in its packfiles, just like a text file. The question is just how delta-able sqlite binary files are.

Diffing is about more than just efficient storage though, it's also about showing a history of human-readable changes (which obv you don't get with a binary format).