Github wikis are git repos

Posted 2025-03-19

Recently, I have been cloning repositories onto my local machine. These are primarily sources of open-source projects that I use daily and truly appreciate. While I have always been a fan of package managers (and still am), my access to the internet has been limited lately. Consequently, when I want to learn about the software I’ve installed via my package manager, I often find myself in a bind. If the man page is missing, lacks sufficient content, or directs me to online documentation, I must rely on whatever the software bundles with the binary upon installation.

Inspecting /usr/local/share reveals that most software developers include useful extras, such as README files, contrib/, and extra/ directories. Most of the time, these resources are adequate. However, nothing compares to the source code itself when it comes to understanding how the software truly works. Additionally, many younger developers prefer to use the built-in wiki feature of their chosen Git platform rather than including documentation directly in the repository (I’m looking at you, Kakoune and lf).

SourceHut takes advantage of git-branch to present wiki content on their website. Unlike GitHub, where wiki repositories are separate from the project source, cloning a project on SourceHut provides the entire package in a single command.

However, since many projects are hosted on GitHub, I still need to address this topic.

Fortunately, GitHub wikis are also Git repositories, allowing us to clone them. While this process isn’t as seamless as SourceHut’s, it’s still manageable. For instance, if a project is hosted at https://github.com/user/repo, it’s well-known that appending .git to the URL allows you to clone the source. What’s less commonly known (at least to me) is that appending .wiki.git to the URL will grant you access to the wiki. So, the complete URL would be https://github.com/user/repo.wiki.git.

With that said, I’m now ready to explore Kakoune’s wiki, which primarily contains configuration tips and tricks. The built-in documentation accessible via :doc is quite comprehensive; I just need the additional magic tricks they suggest that aren’t covered in the standard documentation.