Re: [proposal] switch our repository from Subversion to Git

[Sven Luther <sven@powerlinux.fr>]

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 04:12:53PM +0100, Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 09, 2008 at 12:49:23PM +0100, Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
> > Yes, but as I've mentioned before, there is a git-specific way of doing
> > this, without the need of a hand-made script.
> 
> I was referring to git submodules [1]. However, after a bit of
> investigation [2] it seems they are not a handy way of handling multiple
> package repository on git.d.o. I've also asked the X.org guys on how
> they handle their repositories and it turned out that:
> 
> - you just ask for a group-writable directory on alioth (our will be
>   /git/pkg-ocaml-maint
> 
> - you don't use it as a git repository, but rather put there a tree with
>   several git repositories, ours can be something like:
> 
>     /git/pkg-ocaml-maint/packages/  # <-- not a git repository
>     /git/pkg-ocaml-maint/packages/bibtex2html.git/
>     /git/pkg-ocaml-maint/packages/cairo-ocaml.git/
>     /git/pkg-ocaml-maint/packages/calendar.git/
>     ...
>     /git/pkg-ocaml-maint/projects/  # <-- not a git repository
>     /git/pkg-ocaml-maint/projects/approx.git/
>     /git/pkg-ocaml-maint/projects/debmirror.git/
>     ...
>     ... and so on ...
> 
> - to create a new git repository for a new package you do something
>   like:
> 
>     $ ssh alioth.debian.org GIT_DIR=/git/foo/bar.git git --bare init --shared=world
> 
> - to manage with just one command the update of several cloned git
>   repositories the best practice is to use mr [3]. (BTW I think it would
>   be a wonderful idea to rewrite Sylvain's script about /layout/ to use
>   mr, as mr is $VCS-agnostic; but of course it is pointless now if we
>   are going to move to git as it seems)
> 
> - it only remains open the point about how to checkout at once all
>   package repositories (which probably only myself is interested in
>   doing, but anyhoe :-)) The solution is mr + ssh alioth.d.o printing
>   out all the relevant directories
> 
> Yes, it is a bit more cumbersome than the current situation, but nothing
> spectacularly hard with a couple of scripts well-documented on our web
> page. Also it is working perfectly fine for other I don't see why it
> shouldn't for us.

BTW, i am curious, why not keep the current svn layout, and use git-svn
to access to it, for those who want to use a git like interface and the
distributed nature of it ? 

Friendly,

Sven Luther