Re: Is it possible to have a file shared between branches?

From: Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 12, 2010, 10:07 UTC
Message-ID: <m3ljctf0hs.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.OSX.2.01.1004121058390.52293@kroll.spectro.jussieu.fr>

Eric LEBIGOT <Eric.Lebigot@normalesup.org> writes:

Show 11 quoted lines

> Is it possible for git to track a single file that would be shared
> accross branches?  Case in point: a to-do list file that describes
> what has to be done in all the branches; it can be convenient to put
> all the things that have to be done in a single, shared file, while
> keeping this to-do list in sync with the code (so that it lists what
> has been done, and what remains to be done).  Committing in a branch
> would in effect also commit the shared file in the other branches
> (another possibility may be to have in effect many "trees" in a single
> git directory, with a specific tree for the to-do list).
> 
> Is this something git can do?

Look how it is done in git.git repository. If I remember it correctly, Junio manages separate small repository inside non-versioned Meta/ directory inside git.git checkout, which contains TODO list and some scripts to help maintenance (e.g. to help generate "What's in..." and "What's cooking..." emails).

For distribution this repository is pushed into independent 'todo' branch in git.git repository. It doesn't share commits with other "normal" branches, i.e. 'maint', 'master', 'next', 'pu'.

The 'todo' branch can be seen e.g. here:
  http://git.kernel.org/?p=git/git.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/todo

The history of TODO file can be viewed e.g. here:
  http://git.kernel.org/?p=git/git.git;a=history;f=TODO;hb=refs/heads/todo

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland
ShadeHawk on #git