[Gnu-arch-users] Re: Setting tree revision for imported sources

[Stefan Monnier]

>   (1) do `tla get' of the branch (or use an existing dir from last time, and
>       just make sure it's up to day)
>   (2) Remove all the sources, but not the .id files,  with something like:
>         tla inventory -s | xargs rm
>   (3) Unpack the new vendor tarball
>   (4) Update the (old) .id files to reflect any source changes.
>   (5) Do tla the stuff you want, tla changes, commit, etc.

The neatest feature of MetaCVS is `mcvs grab' which does exactly
what the OP wants:
- untar a tarball
- mcvs grab <version> <project>

What it does is to add the adminisrative files into the untarred directory,
look for file additions, deletions, and moves, and then stops right there so
you can then look at the corresponding diff before doing a potential commit.
It's basically `cvs import' but done right.

The way file moves are discovered by comparing the file list "before" and
"after": files present in both are easy.  All the files only present in
"after" are checked for "similarity" with all the files only present in
"before" to discover file moves, the rest is either added or deleted.
It works suprisingly well.


        Stefan