[Monotone-devel] Re: cvs_import rewrite

[graydon hoare]

Markus Schiltknecht wrote:

> what's up with the cvs_import rewrite branches? Anybody still working on
> such a thing?

I completed the branch and merged it back to mainline, quite a while ago.

> cvs2svn uses a multiple passes of processing the cvs repository.

Yes. The .rewrites.cvs_import branch copied their algorithm reasonably 
closely. It's a good algorithm, that's why I copied it.

There is one thing you might notice missing. Others have characterized 
this as "not processing branches". That's not true: it processes 
branches, it just doesn't arrange them in a *hierarchy*. All branches 
are considered flat, starting from the root revision, with no historical 
relationship between them.

There is a reason for this. It is essentially a pessimistic decision 
based on the fact that there is not necessarily any single "parent 
branchpoint" for any branch in CVS. Each file can enter a branch "foo" 
from some different branch "bar", at any point in time. There need be no 
common branching structure between files. So synthesizing one is 
guesswork at best.

Currently we make no guess. It would be an improvement to make a guess. 
If you want to help write the code to make such guesses, I'd be happy to 
show you around the cvs_import code and answer any questions you have. 
Otherwise I will eventually get around to it, as I know it's an 
important feature.

-graydon