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How to sync Obsidian notes with git while also preserving timestamps

Okay, so this problem arose from me trying to use my VPS to backup my digital brain.

It works fine, however when I cloned the repo to another machine, I discovered all mtime timestamps were messed up. And that something I rely heavily on.

So here's a solution to make it work.

This manual supposes you know how to use git, are acquainted with a terminal and use Linux. Gotta include a broader audience later.

Prerequisites

  • git
  • a repository to sync with (on a VPS or any github/gitlab hostings)
  • your digital brain

Initialization

BACKUP YOUR VAULT IN CASE YOU OR I MESS UP!

First, you have to initialize your repository. Open terminal, go to your Obsidian folder and run git init. You can add a .gitignore file to exclude some of your workspace files. I prefer to keep them synchronized with the exception of .obsidian/workspace, because it's too annoying.

Hooks installation: you will have to do this on all computers you use Obsidian on. Next, go to hooks, download git-store-meta.pl and place it into your .git/hooks. Then make it executable using chmod +x <path to the hooks file>.

Finally, to automatically store and apply metadata, run .git/hooks/git-store-meta.pl --install. This will create all necessary hooks.

The rest is history: set your upstream url, add all files, and push! The convenient way is to run the following script (replace <placeholders> with your values):

#!/usr/bin/env bash
ZK_PATH="<full path to your obsidian vault folder>"

printf "Syncing %s...\n" $ZK_PATH

cd $ZK_PATH

git pull

CHANGES_EXIST="$(git status --porcelain | wc -l)"

if [ "$CHANGES_EXIST" -eq 0 ]
then
    echo "No changes in the local repository, exiting..."
    exit 0
fi

git add .
git commit -m "Last Sync: $(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")"
git push

The idea behind the script is taken from this article.

TODOs

  • automate installing git hooks.
  • Guide for Windows?