ram - High-Performance RAM Workspace for Git Repositories

ram is a lightweight Bash utility designed primarily for Linux systems and SBCs like the Raspberry Pi. It mounts a temporary workspace inside RAM (/dev/shm), drastically reducing SD card write wear and accelerating file operations and build/compilation times.

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Key Features

• GNU Screen Session Protection: Encapsulates the entire RAM session within GNU screen (ram-<repo-name>). If an SSH connection drops, network breaks, or the terminal window closes accidentally, the workspace and in-progress processes remain alive in RAM. Simply re-run ram (or screen -r) to reattach immediately.
• SD Card Lifespan Protection: Intermediate build files (.o, build logs, binary artifacts) are generated inside RAM (tmpfs) and never touch the SD card.
• Direct Git Proxy: Symlinks the .git directory back to disk. Every git commit, git branch, or git add executed inside RAM updates your on-disk repository instantly.
• Smart .gitignore Filtering: Leverages rsync --filter=':- .gitignore' on exit:
  • Tracked source files & persistent untracked files (e.g. notes.txt, .env) are mirrored back to disk.
  • Ignored build artifacts are automatically scrapped when the session ends.
• Safety Traps: Gracefully captures exit, Ctrl+D, Ctrl+C (SIGINT), SIGTERM, and terminal hangups (SIGHUP) to guarantee changes sync back before cleaning up RAM when exiting.
• Visual Prompt Indicator: Spawns an interactive shell with a contextual prompt ([RAM:repo-name]) displaying paths relative to the project root when inside the RAM workspace, and standard paths when outside.
• Quick Return (ram): Running ram without arguments inside the subshell acts like cd, quickly returning you to the root of the RAM workspace.

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License

CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication). Feel free to use, modify, and share without restrictions!

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Installation & Requirements

Ensure rsync and screen (GNU screen) are installed:

sudo apt install rsync screen

Drop the ram script somewhere in your PATH (e.g. ~/.local/bin/ram or /usr/local/bin/ram).

Navigate to any Git repository root and run ram (or run ram <path-to-repo>). If a session for that repository is already running (e.g. after an SSH disconnection), ram automatically reattaches to it!