Multilevel vendor branch import

[Rodolfo Schulz de Lima]

One of my uses of CVS is to record various releases of software, to see
changes between them. For instance, is kind of interesting and educative to
have all releases of linux kernel since linux-0.01 in a CVS repository so
you can see how the kernel evolved through time. I try to keep the original
dates, but the only way to do this is via import -d. The next problem: how
to arrange the repository so that when a new release comes out, it's easy to
import it in? I've come with the following arrangement:

LINUX    LINUX-x.x-BRANCH LINUX-x.x.x-BRANCH
BRANCH

0.01.x
0.10.x
0.11.x
  .      
  .
1.0.x     -    1.0.0
                 1.0.1
               1.0.2
                 .
                 .
               1.0.10
1.1.x
  .
  .
2.0.x
  .
2.4.x    -     2.4.0
               2.4.1
               2.4.2     -   2.4.2-pre1
                             2.4.2-pre2
                             2.4.2-pre3
                                 .
                                 .
                               2.4.2

... and so forth. Just *after* thinking about all this, I discovered that I
cannot import a version as a branch of one specific revision. All I wanted
is something like this: cvs import -r LINUX-2_0_0 linux LINUX
LINUX-2_0-BRANCH LINUX-2_0_1. This would create a branch off revision
LINUX-2_0_0 named LINUX-2_0-BRANCH, and import the sources to there. In case
of new files, dead revisions would be created as 1.1 and 1.1.1.1 (trunk
1.1.1 named LINUX) and the revision itself as 1.1.1.1.1.1 (trunk 1.1.1.1.1
named LINUX-2_0-BRANCH), tagged as LINUX-2_0_1.

Questions: is there a better way to do it without altering the source code?
Is my issue general enough to be in the next cvs' feature release? Creating
dead revisions is really the best way of handling new files inside a
sub-branch of a vendor branch?

I really am interested in getting this feature in cvs, and, being a C
programmer, would like to help coding it if needed, as I feel kind of
comfortable with how's cvs code structured.

Regards,
Rodolfo Lima.

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