Re: Binary files in a linear repository

["Björn Steinbrink" <B.Steinbrink@gmx.de>]

On 2009.11.02 16:08:25 +0100, Markus Hitter wrote:
> The situation I'm trying to solve is:
> 
> - A revision earlier than the latest one is checked out.
> 
> - Files of this earlier commit are modified.
> 
> - I want to record this earlier commit along with it's modifications
> as a new commit on top of master, ignoring intermediate commits:
> 
> com005  <-- master
> com004
> com003  <-- HEAD, files modified
> com002
> com001 (initial commit)
> 
> One solution to do this is to move all files somewhere else, check
> out master, deleting all checked out files, placing the moved away
> files back into place and committing the result as com006.
> Obviously, this is a pretty complex operation, just waiting to
> exploit coding mistakes. Additionally, this will be slow.

Instead of doing "git checkout com003", which detaches HEAD, you could
do:
git read-tree -u --reset com003

Which will update the index and working tree to reflect the contents of
com003. The modify stuff, add, commit, done.

> Now I'm thinking about a much simpler solution: Simply declare the
> current set of files as (a modified) master/com005 and commit them.
> A "cp $GIT_DIR/master $GIT_DIR/HEAD" followed by a commit would do
> it.
> 
> Now my question: Is it safe to tweak the files in $GIT_DIR this way
> or will this corrupt the repository?

Ignoring that $GIT_DIR/master is the wrong path, that 'cp' would (at
best) act like detaching HEAD.

Björn