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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).


That's a good point, thank you


I know Drew from Dropbox implemented a binary diff for his first version (on a bus) but I don't know the details. I don't know if git can somehow...but I suppose you could always MIME encode it (like email base64 encoding).


AFAIR Sqlite files are normally in append mode.




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