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Re: converting gnulib: cvs to git


From: Simon Josefsson
Subject: Re: converting gnulib: cvs to git
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:20:56 +0100
User-agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/22.0.91 (gnu/linux)

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> writes:

> Simon Josefsson <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> I find these markers useful when comparing file dates when updating
>> old software, and I think it would be a clear disadvantage if moving
>> to git won't make the same thing possible.
>
> They are controversial.  I'd rather remove them, at least in the files
> I help maintain.  They cause me more problems than they cure, because
> they introduce spurious changes.  Call me an Aristotelian if you like,
> but I prefer to keep metadata separate from data.

Problem is that CVS meta-data is typically not preserved in the stuff
that you get as end-user, which sometimes is the only source you have
when doing some archaeological expedition into old code.

Ideally, I'd like for the CVS (or git, or whatever) meta-data to be
exported and distributed along with the source code.  Using cvs2cl to
generate ChangeLog's from cvs log does a big part of that, but it
isn't a perfect solution.

> While I'm throwing oil onto the fire, I have a similar opinion of the
> version numbers we maintain in the .m4 files.  They're even worse,
> since they're maintained by hand.

FWIW, I have never understood the point of those version numbers.  The
only reason that I can imagine, of maintaining version numbers on .m4
files, is if there is some shared library alike versioning for
backwards compatibility going on, but there isn't, as far as I know.
I'd be happy to drop those fields too.  They don't contain a date, and
are not reliably updated, so I don't see any practical purpose for
them.

/Simon




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