Re: git-svn and empty directories in svn (was: [PATCH 1.2/2 (fixed)] git-svn: fix output reporting from the delta fetcher)

[Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>]

Seth Falcon <sethfalcon@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Eric, and list,
> 
> Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net> writes:
> > Seth Falcon <sethfalcon@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I think that presently git-svn does not create empty dirs when pulling
> >> from svn.  It would be nice to have such directories created since
> >> some projects will expect the empty dir to be there (no need to track
> >> it in git, IMO).
> >
> > Git itself cannot easily track empty directories (at least as far as
> > update-index and checkout) goes.
> >
> > What I *can* do is run mktree and to force the creation of tree objects
> > with a 4b825dc642cb6eb9a060e54bf8d69288fbee4904 (empty) sub tree and run
> > commit-tree on it, but checkout/checkout-index would still need to be
> > modified to support it.
> >
> > Is that something the git community wants?
> 
> I recently encountered a situation where code wasn't working for me
> because git-svn didn't create an empty dir that is present in svn.
> 
> I'm not trying to argue for the sense/anti-sense of tracking empty
> dirs in an scm, but I think this is an issue worth addressing in some
> fashion.  Here's why.
> 
> I think there are many potential git users out there who are currently
> svn users.  And git-svn is a really nice way to get started, but this
> sort of stumbling block could really turn people off.  For example, it
> made me look pretty dumb when I carelessly complained to my colleague
> about his code not working and then it turns out to be because my
> super-advanced scm tool "messed things up".
> 
> One simple thing (I think it would be simple) is that git-svn could
> issue a loud warning when it encounters an empty directory that it is
> going to ignore.
> 
> I don't understand the implications adding the tracking of empty dirs
> to git.  I suspect it has been discussed before, but haven't yet gone
> fishing in the list archives.  I imagine it would make the argument
> easier for folks wanting to switch a project from svn to git if this
> wasn't one of the differences.  For good or bad, I've often heard this
> svn feature as a motivator to switch from cvs.

I agree that missing empty directories when tracking foreign SVN repos
is annoying.  I've looked into this a bit more; but ended up
trying to reinvent the index :x

Since git-svn misses some other stuff (many property settings,
externals) I'll be working on an internal logging format that can help
track those things.  It'd be nice to have a command like git svn
checkout which works like git checkout; but empty directories are
created.

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