Hi Philip, On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 1:40 PM, Philip Prindeville <philipp_subx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi. > > I tried to import into git a repo that I was working on (because it just seemed easier), but when I tried to export the repo back out after making my changes I found it choking on a few things. > > It was explained to me (by the Bitkeeper folks) that git meta-data doesn’t accurately track file moves… If a file disappears from one place and reappears in another with the same contents, that’s assumed to be a move. > > Given that “git mv” is an explicit action, I’m not sure why that wouldn’t be explicitly tracked. Not a full explanation, but see https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Moving-Files > But I’ve not looked too closely under the covers about how git represents stuff, so maybe there’s more to it than I’m assuming. > > During an export using “-M” and “-C”, Bitkeeper complained: Why would you add -C? Does bitkeeper also track copies? > fast-import: line 'R ports/winnt/libntp/nt_clockstuff.c ports/winnt/ntpd/nt_clockstuff.c' not supported > > so I tried removing those two options, and it got further, this time stalling on: > > fast-import: Unknown command: tag ntp-stable If the fast-import command you are using can't read tags, then perhaps you should report that to the authors of the fast-import tool you are using and/or only feed branches to your fast-export command. > I like git, mostly because I’ve used it a lot more… and I like the GitHub service. I use Bitkeeper because a few projects I work on are already set up to use it and it’s not my call whether it’s worth the effort to make the conversion or live with it. > > So… this is an appeal for both to play better together. > > What’s involved in getting git to track file/directory moves/renames so that it’s palatable to Bitkeeper? Not tracking file/directory moves/renames wasn't an oversight but a fundamental design decision; see e.g. https://public-inbox.org/git/Pine.LNX.4.64.0510211826350.10477@xxxxxxxxxxx/. However, supposing that we did track renames, how would we tell bitkeeper? Well, we'd print out a line that looks like this in the fast-export: 'R ports/winnt/libntp/nt_clockstuff.c ports/winnt/ntpd/nt_clockstuff.c' which is precisely the line that bitkeeper's fast-import was choking on. So, it sounds like they don't support importing rename information (or at least the version of fast-import you're using doesn't). I think this is where the bug is; you'll probably want to report it to whoever maintains the fast-import command that is choking on this line. Once that's fixed, you can export from git with the -M flag, and from that output, there'll be no way to tell whether the original repository tracked renames or detected them after the fact. Hope that helps, Elijah
