Re: fast-import issues with monotone

From: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>
Date: Sep 8, 2008, 22:36 UTC
Message-ID: <20080908223601.GB14448@spearce.org>
In-Reply-To: <94a0d4530809081530p60ff8692qbf9c314516d03869@mail.gmail.com>

Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm stuck with yet another issue while trying to export a mtn
> repository, so I thought on sharing the list of issues:
> 
> a) directory rename/deletes are indistinguishable from files

Hmm.  I had thought fast-import allowed you to rename or delete a
directory by just name its path.  Internally it should be cascading
those operations to all of the contained children.

Show 6 quoted lines

> b) file mode changes are just like any other operation (you don't get
> the mode at each revision)
> 
> This means the file mode needs to be tracked all the time. Also, it
> means the file contents (blob) needs to be tracked because sometimes
> the only change in the file is the mode.

Ow. I could see a special case being introduced into the language as placeholders for the fields, telling gfi not to replace the data if it is already present. Probably not even a very difficult patch to add. E.g. make "-" a placeholder for both mode and content SHA-1/mark.

> For these two issues the only viable solution is to keep track of the
> whole tree of each revision. Does it makes sense to do that? Or would
> it make more sense to modify fast-import to allow more delta-oriented
> operations?

Most frontends do keep track of everything. The CVS->Git and CVS->SVNish->Git keep track of everything just so they can order things across files to form commits/changesets.

-- 
Shawn.