Re: I have end-of-lifed cvsps

[Martin Langhoff <martin.langhoff@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 1:29 PM, Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> wrote:
> I am almost certain the output of cvs-fast-export is stable.  I
> believe the output of cvsps-3.x was, too.  Not sure about 2.x.

IIRC, making the output stable is nontrivial, specially on branches.
Two cases are still in my mind, from when I was wrestling with cvsps.

1 - For a history with CVS HEAD and a long-running "stable release"
branch ("STABLE"), which branched at P1...

   a - adding a file only at the tip of STABLE "retroactively changes
history"  for P1 and perhaps CVS HEAD

   b - forgetting to properly tag a subset of files with the branch
tag, and doing it later retroactively changes history

2 - you can create a new branch or tag with files that do not belong
together in any "commit". Doing so changes history retroactively

... when I say "changes history", I mean that the importers I know
revise their guesses of what files were seen together in a 'commit'.
This is specially true for history recorded with early cvs versions
that did not record a 'commit id'.

cvsps has the strange "feature" that it will cache its
assumptions/guesses, and continue incrementally from there. So if a
change in the CVS repo means that the old guess is now invalidated, it
continues the charade instead of forcing a complete rewrite of the git
history.

Maybe the current crop of tools have developed stronger magic than
what was available a few years ago... the task did seem impossible to
me.

cheers,




m
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