Git2PROV: Exposing version control system content as W3C PROV

Abstract

Data provenance is defined as information about entities, activities and people producing or modifying a piece of data. On the Web, the interchange of standardized provenance of (linked) data is an essential step towards establishing trust [2]. One mechanism to track (part of) the provenance of data, is through the use of version control systems (VCS), such as Git. These systems are widely used to facilitate collaboration primarily for both code and data. Here, we describe a system to expose the provenance stored in VCS in a new standard Web-native format: W3C PROV [4]. This enables the easy publication of VCS provenance on the Web and subsequent integration with other systems that make use of PROV. The system is exposed as a RESTful Web service, which allows integration into user-friendly tools, such as browser plugins.