From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: jidanni@jidanni.org Subject: Re: timestamps not git-cloned Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:48:41 +0800 Message-ID: <87k5am3uom.fsf@jidanni.org> References: <200811291117.01655.trast@student.ethz.ch> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii To: git@vger.kernel.org X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Sun Nov 30 01:50:12 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1L6aVn-0003RJ-CF for gcvg-git-2@gmane.org; Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:50:11 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753457AbYK3Asq (ORCPT ); Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:48:46 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753352AbYK3Asq (ORCPT ); Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:48:46 -0500 Received: from sd-green-bigip-207.dreamhost.com ([208.97.132.207]:50735 "EHLO homiemail-a1.g.dreamhost.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753272AbYK3Asp (ORCPT ); Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:48:45 -0500 Received: from jidanni2.jidanni.org (122-127-35-172.dynamic.hinet.net [122.127.35.172]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by homiemail-a1.g.dreamhost.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 881AD119DCC for ; Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:48:44 -0800 (PST) Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Well all I know is from the simple user who does e.g., # aptitude install linux-doc-2.6.26 # ls -lt /usr/share/doc/linux-doc-2.6.26/Documentation/ he thinks "gosh, can't tell what's new vs. what hasn't changed in years". OK, now I know why this is tolerable upstream: they all use git. But for the lowly user downstream who gets what git-archive produces, it seems like a step backwards: "who threw away the timestamp of when each file was last changed?". OK, http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/ContentLimitations says this is by design. And OK, thinking "file by file" is old fashioned, I read. The non-git end user should just get used to reading ChangeLogs, if any, and stop doing ls -lt. But you must admit, /usr/share/doc/linux-doc-2.6.26/Documentation/ etc. are aimed for reading without git. Anyways, if just in case any individual file modification time information can still be pried from the 40 byte IDs or whatever, I would suggest using it by default in git-archive at least, and maybe even git-clone etc. Just letting you know my 'valuable first impressions'. I expect once I start smoking more of this "git" stuff, I too will become comfortably numb to aforementioned lowly user problem, so you would never know unless I hereby first told you before it was too late.