Re: Problem with git filter-branch

[Mike Hommey <mh@glandium.org>]

On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 10:36:26PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Sat, 25 Oct 2008, Pascal Obry wrote:
> 
> > Anyway, I used to run the following command:
> > 
> > $ git filter-branch --tag-name-filter cat --parent-filter "sed -e
> > 's/^$/-p c96d4da294667de1800687d25340551683153002/'" svn-release_2_6
> > 
> > without problem, I now get this:
> > 
> > Namespace refs/original/ not empty
> > rm: cannot remove directory
> > `/home/obry/dev/repositories/git/proj/.git-rewrite': Directory not empty
> 
> It is a (maybe ill-conceived) feature.  When branches are rewritten, their 
> original versions are stored in the refs/original/ namespace.  You can 
> force overwriting with "-f".
> 
> I wonder if people would like to have this feature removed; reflogs should 
> be enough.

I have never have had use for the refs/original namespace, and I used
filter-branch more than a couple of times. Though I would certainly
understand that people would not be confident enough not to have a
parachute. Reflog would indeed be enough, as long as it is not
branch@{42000} that needs to be used. Haven't checked, but theorically,
it should be branch@{1} in all cases, so no problem here.

Mike