Re: commit-id fails after cg-init

From: David A. Wheeler <dwheeler@dwheeler.com>
Date: May 4, 2005, 15:14 UTC
Message-ID: <4278E6D4.6060807@dwheeler.com>
In-Reply-To: <20050503211301.GA15995@pasky.ji.cz>

Joel Becker said:

> Well, cg-init in this case creates no objects.  I'd say,
>instead, it should create an empty tree object (representing a project
>with no files) and commit that.  That would be your initial commit, and
>would put something valid in heads/master.

That would actually make sense; commits would go all the way back to the "empty tree" as the ultimate initial tree.

There's an interesting side-effect of this; I _think_ it's fine but it might be worth thinking through. If all new projects start with an empty tree, that creates a "common root" that all projects can appeal to. That means that in theory a merge between any two project root trees can eventually find a common ancestor: the empty tree. I _think_ that's okay... is it?

That also means that empty directories will end up with the "empty tree" as well. Is there a risk of multiple empty directories causing problems later? As far as I can tell, there aren't any problems with that, and does seem logically sound.

--- David A. Wheeler