[as PDF]

A cryptic crossword themed around the distributed version control system git. This is partly inspired by the sorry state of the git documentation, which reads like a hodge-podge of cryptic clues on its own. I’m pretty happy with some of the surface readings.

Cryptic solvers with no understanding of git will have a very hard time with a few of these clues. On the other hand, git users without any understanding of cryptic clues will feel right at home.

Across
1 git rebase a ref, keeping the current branch. (11)
8 It horizontally connects a group of developers that is second rate at heart. (3,4)
9 Port one good upstream class. (5)
10 Stash /home with Eclipse, say. (4)
11 Plumbing in git finally offers interface letting everybody test SHA1 abbreviations. (7)
13 Better bring changes from the repository into the working copy if you use Subversion. (6)
14 Announce merge of HEAD in real life. (6)
17 Repent misguided introduction of DVCS sham. (7)
19 Git in detached HEAD state at the beginning of checkout is a proverbial irritation. (4)
22 Rebuke from git-fetch I’d enjoy. (5)
23 Angry rant about central part of GUI editor reveals having a temperament of a particular kind. (7)
24 Social gathering attended by men only to regain a ludicrous git concept. (7,4)

Down
1 Force print download objects and refs from another repository. (5)
2 Truly departed, I left and rewrote history. (7)
3 Pay attention to the editor features. (4)
4 Romeo to overplay origin, maybe. (6)
5 Conflicting git merge runs for several minutes. (3,5)
6 Sounds like the results of a collision, stupid. (5)
7 Made sense of the syntax, quietly bothered, … (6)
12 … and replaced caret with revspec’s second symbol, among others. (8)
13 Carefully analyse a French command to lose virginity. (6)
15 He makes changes later re compilation. (7)
16 Creator accepts first pull on computer, behaving with some degree of autonomy. (6)
18 Finally committed its changes. (5)
20 Hardy eccentric used lots of branch heads. (5)
21 Scandinavian man’s revolutionary version control system. (4)

(UPDATE: I’ve received a lot of feedback on this one, so I took another round polishing the surfaces. This is the 3rd revision.)