Re: Announcing git-reparent

[Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 3:03 AM, Piotr Krukowiecki
<piotr.krukowiecki@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just wondering, is the result different than something like
>
> git checkout commit_to_reparent
> cp -r * ../snapshot/
> git reset --hard new_parent
> rm -r *
> cp -r ../snapshot/* .
> git add -A
>
> (assumes 1 parent, does not cope with .dot files, and has probably
> other small problems)

The result is similar, but your script would also lose the commit
message and author.  I think the following would do exactly as my
script does (untested):

git checkout commit_to_reparent
git branch tmp
git reset --soft new_parent
git commit -C tmp
git branch -D tmp

I actually contemplated using the above method in my script, rather
than git-commit-tree and git-reset.  In the end, I decided to stick
with my original approach because it does not create any intermediate
state; either an early command fails and nothing changes, or the git
reset works and everything is done.  Using the above might be cleaner
for the --edit flag since it allows the git-commit cleanup of the
commit message, but this would require much more careful error
handling, and might make the reflog uglier.

I'd be interested to hear a git expert's opinion on the choice.