Subject: Re: Is my repository broken?

From: "Shawn O. Pearce" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 18:55:22 -0400

Julian Phillips <[email-masked]> wrote:
> [...] In particular I had a number of commits with an empty ident [...]
...
> Also, shouldn't fast-import be imposing the same restrictions on what you 
> are allowed to commit that the main git tools do?  If not, are such 
> restrictions documented so that I can apply them in my conversion script?

Hmm, no.  fast-import allows what the generalized data model permits
in the object store, its really plumbing.  If you are feeding it
an input stream that creates data that isn't compliant with what
the higher level VCS porcelain wants, well, all I can say is "don't
do that".

The fast-import manual specifically warns in the "merge" command
documentation that you may not want to use more than 15 merge
commands, as it can create a commit that other tools based around
git won't like.  But we still let you do it.

We also still let you create a commit with duplicate parents.
Some tools (gitk) have had issues with that in the past, but many of
them have been fixed after a fast-import result was used with them.
>From a VCS point of view its silly to list the same ancestor twice.
But from an object model point of view, it may make sense if you
were building something else on top of the core plumbing.

The same holds true for the empty ident.

-- 
Shawn.