[PATCH v2] Documentation cvs: Clarify when a bare repository is needed

[PATCH v2] Documentation cvs: Clarify when a bare repository is needed

[Matthew Ogilvie]

New users sometimes import a project and then immediately
try to use the imported repository as a central shared repository.
This provides pointers about setting up a bare repository for that
in the parts of the documentation dealing with CVS migration.

Signed-off-by: Matthew Ogilvie <mmogilvi_git@miniinfo.net>
---

I sent an earlier version of this patch about two weeks ago, but never
got any feedback about it.  This version rewords a couple of things
and expands the commit message a little.  I'll probably abandon it
after this.

This was inspired because occasionally someone asks the mailing list
about the "Index already exists in git repo" error message
from git-cvsserver, and I noticed that two relevant and common
starting points in the documentation (git-cvsserver and
get-cvsimport) do not mention that a shared repository should be bare.

Maybe someone should write up something similar for things like
git-push, git-svn, various other import scripts, etc.  I don't really
know enough about any of them and how they interact with non-bare
repositories to write reliable documentation.

Mostly unrelated: While in gitcvs-migration, I also noticed that
it doesn't mention git-cvsexportcommit at all, but I'm
not sure if it should just have a link in the "SEE ALSO"
section, a sentence or two near where it talks about
incremental imports (since if you need incrementatl import, you
likely also need incremental export), or a whole new section.
Since I've never used cvsexportcommit at all, I'm not real
confident on what to say about how to use it with incremental import.

          - Matthew Ogilvie

 Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt    |    6 ++++++
 Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt    |    3 +++
 Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt |    5 +++++
 3 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt b/Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt
index ed79bb8..aec1bca 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt
@@ -31,6 +31,12 @@ to work with; after that, you need to `git-merge` incremental imports, or
 any CVS branches, yourself.  It is advisable to specify a named remote via
 -r to separate and protect the incoming branches.
 
+If you intend to set up a shared public repository that all developers can
+read/write, or if you want to use linkgit:git-cvsserver[1], then you
+probably want to make a bare clone of the imported repository,
+and use the clone as the shared repository.
+See linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7].
+
 
 OPTIONS
 -------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt b/Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt
index e0e35db..71433d7 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt
@@ -133,6 +133,9 @@ write access to the log file and to the database (see
 <<dbbackend,Database Backend>>. If you want to offer write access over
 SSH, the users of course also need write access to the git repository itself.
 
+You also need to ensure that each repository is "bare" (without a git index
+file) for `cvs commit` to work. See linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7].
+
 [[configaccessmethod]]
 All configuration variables can also be overridden for a specific method of
 access. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and "pserver". The
diff --git a/Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt b/Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt
index 4dc7ec5..af453f2 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt
@@ -143,6 +143,11 @@ work, you must not modify the imported branches; instead, create new
 branches for your own changes, and merge in the imported branches as
 necessary.
 
+If you want a shared repository, you will need to make a bare clone
+of the imported directory, as described above. Then treat the imported
+directory as another development clone for purposes of merging
+incremental imports.
+
 Advanced Shared Repository Management
 -------------------------------------
 
-- 
1.5.6.1.204.g699135