suggested feature: completely expunge a file (or just a delta) a la rebase

suggested feature: completely expunge a file (or just a delta) a la rebase

[Mike Coleman]

Here's an idea for a git feature.  (Or perhaps this is already
possible and I just don't see it.)

It would be nice to be able to completely expunge a file or delta from
a private part of an archive ("private" meaning not yet published to
others).

Here's my use case.  I have some unit tests for my program, and I
added some input and output for the tests to my git archive.  Now I'm
having second thoughts, as these files can be quite large, and I'm
realizing what this implies with respect to git.  Even the smallish
test cases I checked in are 5-10MB, which is way larger than the
codebase, and I'm not sure it makes sense to drag all of this around
in the git archive.  (Maybe it would be appropriate to put them in a
parallel archive?)

Anyway, I realized that hacking the archive this way isn't very
elegant, but maybe others would find it useful.  It seems like the
basic technique of git-rebase could be applied here.

Even if the archive is already public, I suppose it might occasionally
be useful to be able to (say) split the archive by subtrees, and
simply have everyone cut over.

Mike

Re: suggested feature: completely expunge a file (or just a delta) a la rebase

[Junio C Hamano]

"Mike Coleman" <tutufan@gmail.com> writes:

> Here's an idea for a git feature.  (Or perhaps this is already
> possible and I just don't see it.)
> ...
> Anyway, I realized that hacking the archive this way isn't very
> elegant, but maybe others would find it useful.  It seems like the
> basic technique of git-rebase could be applied here.

There have been talks about polishing cg-rewritehist into a
shape suitable for inclusion in core git.git, now Cogito is not
actively developed anymore.

I think the first thing to fix is its name "rewritehist", which
may technically be correct, feels a bit too ugly ;-)

Re: suggested feature: completely expunge a file (or just a delta) a la rebase

[Mike Coleman]

On 4/26/07, Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> wrote:
> There have been talks about polishing cg-rewritehist into a
> shape suitable for inclusion in core git.git, now Cogito is not
> actively developed anymore.

Ah, that looks like it'd fit the bill.  I may see if it'll still work
for my simple case.  Thanks for the pointer.

> I think the first thing to fix is its name "rewritehist", which
> may technically be correct, feels a bit too ugly ;-)

Naming is very important.  I seem to recall hearing (from PE) that one
of the early Unix guys was later asked if there was anything they'd
change in hindsight.  Their response: they'd spell "creat" with an
'e'.

Re: suggested feature: completely expunge a file (or just a delta) a la rebase

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi,

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007, Mike Coleman wrote:

> On 4/26/07, Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> wrote:
> > There have been talks about polishing cg-rewritehist into a
> > shape suitable for inclusion in core git.git, now Cogito is not
> > actively developed anymore.
> 
> Ah, that looks like it'd fit the bill.  I may see if it'll still work
> for my simple case.  Thanks for the pointer.
> 
> > I think the first thing to fix is its name "rewritehist", which
> > may technically be correct, feels a bit too ugly ;-)
> 
> Naming is very important.

Maybe git-rewrite-commits?

> I seem to recall hearing (from PE) that one of the early Unix guys was 
> later asked if there was anything they'd change in hindsight.  Their 
> response: they'd spell "creat" with an 'e'.

In related news: there is really no question that bike sheds should be 
painted red. Really.

Ciao,
Dscho

Re: suggested feature: completely expunge a file (or just a delta) a la rebase

[Mike Coleman]

I have no idea why bike sheds should be painted red (though this does
sound very vaguely familiar).  I did get a chance to try out
cg-admin-rewritehist last night, and it worked like a charm.  Even got
rid of my graft point (my project has previously lived in RCS, CVS,
and Subversion).

Anyway, it'd definitely be useful, I think, especially as a means to
unroll newby mistakes such as mine.

Mike


On 4/26/07, Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, 26 Apr 2007, Mike Coleman wrote:
>
> > On 4/26/07, Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> wrote:
> > > There have been talks about polishing cg-rewritehist into a
> > > shape suitable for inclusion in core git.git, now Cogito is not
> > > actively developed anymore.
> >
> > Ah, that looks like it'd fit the bill.  I may see if it'll still work
> > for my simple case.  Thanks for the pointer.
> >
> > > I think the first thing to fix is its name "rewritehist", which
> > > may technically be correct, feels a bit too ugly ;-)
> >
> > Naming is very important.
>
> Maybe git-rewrite-commits?
>
> > I seem to recall hearing (from PE) that one of the early Unix guys was
> > later asked if there was anything they'd change in hindsight.  Their
> > response: they'd spell "creat" with an 'e'.
>
> In related news: there is really no question that bike sheds should be
> painted red. Really.
>
> Ciao,
> Dscho
>
>