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[RFC] fast-import: notemodify (N) command

From
Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date
Jan 31, 2011, 18:33 UTC
Message-ID
<20110131183350.GB31826@burratino>
In-Reply-To
<1255083738-23263-8-git-send-email-johan@herland.net>
Dear fast importers,
Another week, another fast-import protocol extension.

Most DVCSes do not allow one to non-disruptively change the log message for a commit. But sometimes people want to attach information to a commit after the fact:

 - whether it was tested and worked correctly
 - who liked or disliked the commit (Acked-by, Reviewed-by)
 - corresponding revision number after export to another version
   control system
 - bug number
 - corresponding compiled binary
The N command allows such notes to be attached to commits, like so:
 1. first the commit is imported as usual (let's say it's ":1").
 2. commit annotations are added separately, like so:
	commit refs/notes/commits
	committer A. U. Thor <author@example.com> Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:15:59 -0600
	data <<END
	Notes after review.
	END
	N inline :1
	data <<END
	Acked-by: me
	END
Details:
 - there can be multiple categories of notes: "refs/notes/commits"
   contains ordinary addenda to the commit message, but one might also
   see refs/notes/bugzilla, refs/notes/svn-commit, and so on.
 - each commit gets at most one blob of notes in each category.  Later
   notemodify (N) commands overwrite the effect from earlier ones.
 - the syntax of a notemodify command is as follows:
	'N' sp <dataref> sp <committish> lf
   The <dataref> represents a blob with the annotations to be used
   ("inline" is allowed, too, just like with filemodify).  The
   <committish> can be any expression allowed in a 'from' command
   (branch name, mark reference :<idnum>, other commit name) and
   represents the commit that is to be annotated.
 - this has been supported in git since v1.6.6.  There is no
   "feature" for it --- I don't think the feature declaration
   facility existed yet.

Do other DVCSes support something like this? Should it get a feature name?

Jonathan
Previous: Johan HerlandNext: Sverre Rabbelier
Message 10 of 33 in “[RFC/PATCHv7 00/22] git notes”
  1. Johan HerlandOct 9, 2009
  2. Johan HerlandOct 9, 2009
  3. Johan HerlandOct 9, 2009
  4. 01/22 Introduce commit notesJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  5. 02/22 Add a script to edit/inspect notesJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  6. 03/22 Speed up git notes lookupJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  7. 04/22 Add an expensive test for git-notesJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  8. 05/22 Teach "-m <msg>" and "-F <file>" to "git notes edit"Johan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  9. 06/22 fast-import: Add support for importing commit notesJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  10. [RFC] fast-import: notemodify (N) commandJonathan Nieder, Jan 31, 2011
  11. Sverre RabbelierJan 31, 2011
  12. Jonathan NiederJan 31, 2011
  13. Sverre RabbelierJan 31, 2011
  14. Sam VilainJan 31, 2011
  15. Sverre RabbelierFeb 1, 2011
  16. 07/22 t3302-notes-index-expensive: Speed up create_repo()Johan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  17. 08/22 Add flags to get_commit_notes() to control the format of the note stringJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  18. 09/22 Add '%N'-format for pretty-printing commit notesJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  19. 10/22 Teach notes code to free its internal data structures on requestJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  20. 11/22 Teach the notes lookup code to parse notes trees with various fanout schemesJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  21. 12/22 Add selftests verifying that we can parse notes trees with various fanoutsJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  22. 13/22 Refactor notes code to concatenate multiple notes annotating the same objectJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  23. 14/22 Add selftests verifying concatenation of multiple notes for the same commitJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  24. 15/22 Notes API: get_commit_notes() -> format_note() + remove the commit restrictionJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  25. 16/22 Notes API: init_notes(): Initialize the notes tree from the given notes refJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  26. 17/22 Notes API: add_note(): Add note objects to the internal notes tree structureJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  27. 18/22 Notes API: get_note(): Return the note annotating the given objectJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  28. 19/22 Notes API: for_each_note(): Traverse the entire notes tree with a callbackJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  29. 20/22 Notes API: Allow multiple concurrent notes trees with new struct notes_treeJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  30. 21/22 Refactor notes concatenation into a flexible interface for combining notesJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  31. 22/22 fast-import: Proper notes tree manipulation using the notes APIJohan Herland, Oct 9, 2009
  32. Shawn O. PearceOct 9, 2009
  33. Johan HerlandNov 20, 2009

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