Genealogical branches

I am working on a stepped tutorial that walks the user through the development of a number of related files. I have been trying to keep this under various SCMs. Currently git seems like the best match. But I have some questions.

The issue is that I want to have a directory which will ultimately contain selected portions of the final products genealogy in addition to other files. For example:

        README
        ...
        test1
        test2
        test3a
        test3b
        ...

And each step is developed from the preceding one. However, not being perfect, there have been occasions where I have found mistakes in an earlier step that need to be corrected and propagated to the later steps.

I have found a work flow that seems to do what I want, but there may be a better way to do this and I would like some advice. I initialize the DB and work on test1, that is then branched to step2 where test1 is first renamed and then modified to become test2.

At this point I create a "final" branch and through some shenanigans I don't completely understand, I pull from master and B2 to get both step1 and step2 into final with their full history. Then as changes are made to step1 I can pull those into later steps. Another tricky part is that when I get to final, I have to pull from all of the ancestral branches simultaneously.

Anyway, here is an annotated script that illustrates this, it is also attached without the extra commentary:

--- BEGIN GENETEST.SH --- mkdir genetest cd genetest git init-db cat - >test1 <<EOF aaaaaaaa BBBBBBBB cccccccc EOF echo README>README git add . git commit -a -m "Initial checkin"

# Create step2 branch git checkout -b step2 git mv test1 test2 git commit -a -m "Created step2" echo dddddddd>>test2 echo "README 2">README git commit -a -m "Added step2 changes"

# Create conglomerate branch git checkout master git checkout -b final

# This is where the shenanigans come in. I'm not even completely sure # why it works. But arrived at the first two commands through # experimentation. I thought one or the other would suffice, but # neither alone did. The two together, however, bring this basically # up to step2 status with test1 being deleted and a step2->step2 # merge indicated in the log. git fetch -a . step2 git pull -a . step2

# So then this finds the deleted file and brings it back in from master. FILES=$(git-diff-index --name-only --diff-filter=D master) git add $FILES

git commit -a -m "Created final"

# Now let's go modify master and see whether or not changes # propagate forward to both files in final. git checkout master cat - >test1 <<EOF aaaaaaaa bbbbbbbb cccccccc EOF git commit -a -m "Fixed the B... line"

# Pull the changes into step2 and resolve the conflict from the # too-close-together line changes. git checkout step2 git pull . master || true mv -f test1 test2 echo dddddddd>>test2 MSG=$(cat .git/MERGE_MSG) git commit -a -m "$MSG"

# Now check that all changes come through successfully, # the interesting thing is that all the "ancestor" branches # MUST be pulled at together or things don't work. git checkout final git pull . master step2

# Check that README matches the one from step2 # and that the B... line has been corrected in both # versions of the ancestor file. cat README cat test1 cat test2

# If we've gotten this far, say so. echo SUCCEEDED --- END GENETEST.SH ---

So can anyone explain why the mystery portions "work" and why I have to pull from all the ancestral branches simultaneously?

Also, if you have a better solution or work flow I'm open to it.

Thanks,

-- Ron Parker