GIT maintenance on ia64 test tree

The way that I'm using GIT to maintain my test/release trees results in the test tree building a history of extra fluff (lots of auto-updates from Linus, plus all the merge-commits to bring in each of the patch-sets, plus some mistakes from when I goofed with GIT).

So, I'm going to periodically blow away the test branch and re-create a clean version. This mail is advance notice that I'm going to do this when Linus releases 2.6.15-rc1 (a convenient point since I just sent everything that was cooking in test to Linus ... so the test tree is currently empty).

What this means is that the new "test" branch won't have any connection to the old "test" branch. So a "git pull" or "git fetch" will fail. To fix this in native git I *think* you need to run (git list copied in the hope that if this is tragically wrong, or overly complex, someone will take pity and explain how it should be done):

 $ git checkout
{any-branch-other-than-the-one-you-track-my-test-tree-with}
 $ git branch -D test
 $ git branch test v2.6.15-rc1

Note that this will orphan all the objects relating to the history of the test branch. You can clean up with:

 $ git prune

BUT, this will also throw away any other orphaned stuff too, so only do this if you are ok with ditching this. You could run

 $ git fsck-objects

before any of the above to see whether you have any orphans.

Cogito users ... I have no idea. First one to figure it out please post a recipe.

-Tony