Keeping a public and private version of my app using Git

Question

I am building a Rails app that I manage with Git. All is perfect, but I'd like keep a public version as well as a private one. That is:

• the public version is for a public repository (for people to use),
• and the private version is for my own site.

The idea is that both versions should be up-to-date, with the difference that my private version's files contain passwords for my site, and the public version doesn't (or contains some default values as such).

I've been thinking of branches: master (the public version) and some private one.
But it seems that I'd have to do a lot of merging after each commit.

Please, bear in mind, that I am a asking for I am still quite a noob at git.

Thanks folks!

Answer 1

I would:

• store the password in a private repo which contains only sensitive data
• store in the public repo:
  • a reference to the private repo as a submodule (only you could checkout that submodule, since it is a private repo)
  • some template config
  • some script able to build the actual config file with the right value:
    
    • default value if there is no submodule
    • passwords if the submodule is checked-out.

That way, no merge whatsoever, and no way to push sensitive data to a public repo.

Answer 2

I do Django development and keep all my sensitive data inside a single file which I put inside my .gitignore. It's not version controlled and I keep separate versions of this on my deployment server and local dev machine.