How to hide private information in an open source project?

Question

Recently, I've been developing an open source proxy that has a client and a server. Both client and server have scripts.

The server end can be run on a cloud platform, and the client connects the server.

I registered an app on Heroku for debugging the server, and the address of that app is written in the client script temporarily.

This is the environment. But obviously the address of the server is just for personal debugging. I don't want to make it public.

My current method is, every time before I commit to the repository, I delete the address, and after commiting, I add that back. It is not a good manner evidently.

This phenomenon should be very common. How do people usually deal with that?

See [when you have secret key in your project, how can pushing to GitHub be possible?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/5132152/11343) — CharlesB, Jun 18 '12 at 12:05
Also see [What's the easiest way to deal with project configuration files?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/6782017/11343) — CharlesB, Jun 18 '12 at 12:06

Stefan · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-18T12:12:30.297

9

Have a configuration file (e.g. config.ini) that is excluded from git (i.e. add it to your project's .gitignore) and include a sample configuration (config.example.ini) instead.

edited Jun 18 '12 at 12:12

answered Jun 18 '12 at 12:04

Stefan

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 18 '12 at 12:04

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Store the information in an environment variable, or in a file outside the source tree.

For more complex projects, you can supply it as an argument to the build script.

answered Jun 18 '12 at 12:04

ecatmur

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How to hide private information in an open source project?

2 Answers2