# git-svn and empty directories

3 messages from 2008-12-16 to 2008-12-22. Participants: Thomas Jarosch, Eric Wong.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/16754

## Thomas Jarosch, 2008-12-16 12:53

Subject: git-svn and empty directories
Message-ID: <200812161353.49796.thomas.jarosch@intra2net.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200812161353.49796.thomas.jarosch%40intra2net.com

```
Hello Eric and Deskin,

I'm currently looking into preserving empty directories from a SVN repository 
by automatically creating empty .gitignore files for them.

The control flow of the git-svn code is still a jungle to me,
maybe you have a hint how to implement a proof-of-concept code?

I don't think I can just touch a .gitignore file in get_untracked()
and those files will magically turn up in git's index...

Thanks,
Thomas

```

## Eric Wong, 2008-12-21 07:08

Subject: Re: git-svn and empty directories
Message-ID: <20081221070854.GA22014@hand.yhbt.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20081221070854.GA22014%40hand.yhbt.net
In-Reply-To: <200812161353.49796.thomas.jarosch@intra2net.com>

```
Thomas Jarosch <thomas.jarosch@intra2net.com> wrote:
> Hello Eric and Deskin,
> 
> I'm currently looking into preserving empty directories from a SVN repository 
> by automatically creating empty .gitignore files for them.
> 
> The control flow of the git-svn code is still a jungle to me,
> maybe you have a hint how to implement a proof-of-concept code?
> 
> I don't think I can just touch a .gitignore file in get_untracked()
> and those files will magically turn up in git's index...

Hi Thomas,

Modern git-svn never touches the working tree during fetch, it hashes
objects into the database and adds those to the indexes directly.

However, I don't think your proposal is a good idea since it adds too
much "magic".  Complex special cases for delta application if the
.gitignore gets real content and backwards-incompatibility since I know
some git-svn users already rely on pushing .gitignore files (empty or
otherwise) to an upstream SVN repo.

The minor problem of missing empty directories isn't big enough to be
worth the trouble IMHO.

The unhandled.log is made to be machine parseable, so if somebody really
wanted to recreate empty direct after checkout, they could write a
script that parses it and creates it based on the history of the current
working tree.

-- 
Eric Wong

```

## Thomas Jarosch, 2008-12-22 08:58

Subject: Re: git-svn and empty directories
Message-ID: <200812220958.55614.thomas.jarosch@intra2net.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200812220958.55614.thomas.jarosch%40intra2net.com
In-Reply-To: <20081221070854.GA22014@hand.yhbt.net>

```
Hello Eric,

On Sunday, 21. December 2008 08:08:54 Eric Wong wrote:
> Modern git-svn never touches the working tree during fetch, it hashes
> objects into the database and adds those to the indexes directly.

Ok

> However, I don't think your proposal is a good idea since it adds too
> much "magic".  Complex special cases for delta application if the
> .gitignore gets real content and backwards-incompatibility since I know
> some git-svn users already rely on pushing .gitignore files (empty or
> otherwise) to an upstream SVN repo.
>
> The minor problem of missing empty directories isn't big enough to be
> worth the trouble IMHO.

Ok, this seems to be too much effort to fix. I manually added the directories
to my HEAD version and really hope I don't have to ever checkout
and build something from the past *fingers crossed* :-)

Cheers,
Thomas

```