Re: Git and cvsimport

Marin Atanasov wrote:

If you don't care about incrementally updating the Git repo from the CVS one, I suggest you don't use git-cvsimport. It can make mistakes in the translation, especially with large and old repositories. On the other hand, git-cvsimport is currently the only tool which can incrementally import changes from CVS, i.e. co-exist with it.

cvs2git is a tool which worked more reliably for me, but it can only make a one-off conversion. Also, you might need to tidy up the result afterwards - removing crufty tags, unrelated directories, correcting committer identities, etc. git-filter-branch may be useful here.

If you do care about co-existing with CVS, I find it gets to be hard work, especially if your CVS repo has branches you have to follow - so really I'd suggest you reconsider and only try it if you really have no choice.

In that case you may want to write a wrapper script for git-cvsimport/exportcommit commands to reduce the complexity of using them. I've attempted this, and it sort of works for me, but the result is not really satisfactory, I find it's still liable to break on encountering random things cvsimport/cvsexportcommit can't handle, and then you need to fix things manually (although usually this can be done in Git). Ask me if you want to know more.

git-cvssever may be another option, if your CVS users agree, but I've no experience with it.

My preferred strategy is to persuade my colleagues to abandon CVS entirely.

Cheers,

N