Subject: Archiving tags/branches?

From: Pete Harlan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:43:46 -0700

Hi,

I'm looking for a way to manage an ever-growing list of tags.  I've read
some git docs, but am new to git and wonder if the below method doesn't
work or if there's a standard practice I haven't run into.

Most of the tags in my repo are uninteresting to look at, but can't be
deleted.  (Code releases for the most part, or stalled topic branches.)
 If I wanted to archive those, it looks like this would work:

mkdir .git/refs/archived-tags
cp -a .git/refs/tags/* .git/refs/archived-tags
git tag -d <tag-to-hide> # repeat as necessary

I can then maintain a short list of tags that currently interest me, but
am guaranteed not to lose old branches (say) referenced by those tags.

Is there a reason this won't work?

The immediate downsides I see are:

1. The name "archived-tags" might clash someday with a git directory.

2. I have to manually copy this to clones if I want it there too, and
can't manage it from them remotely.

In general, I'm thinking flat tag and branch namespaces must get
unweildy, and short of implementing directory-style namespace management
within git (e.g., hide tags beginning with "." by default, allow tag
subdirectories) I'm looking for a workaround.

Thanks,

--Pete