Re: Partially private repository?

[Avery Pennarun <apenwarr@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 5:01 PM, Daed Lee <daed@thoughtsofcode.com> wrote:
> Hi, I'm wondering if git can handle the following use. I have a
> project that started as private experiment, but has morphed into
> something I'd like to release publicly. I want to give others access
> to the repository, but only to commits after a certain cutoff date.
> Commits prior to that date have things like hardcoded file paths,
> emails, etc. that I'd like to keep private.
>
> I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to create a new repository,
> add the project files to it, and make that public, however I'd like to
> keep my private commit history along with the public commit history
> going forward in a single repository if possible. Is there a way to do
> this with git?

You should probably split your history into two pieces: the "before"
and "after" parts.  To split out the "after" part, you could use
git-filter-branch
(http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/v1.6.0.6/git-filter-branch.html).
 Then, in your private copy of the repo, you could reattach the
"before" part of the history using git grafts.

Have fun,

Avery