[Adonthell-devel] Re: git, anyone?

[Chris Frey]

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:34:15PM +0100, Kai Sterker wrote:
> Since this came up more than a few times so far ("Why are you still
> using CVS?"), I spent a few minutes looking at what Savannah has to
> say about git:
> 
> https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/UsingGit
> 
> Interestingly, it's possibly to convert the current CVS repository to
> git without the help of any Savannah staff. The question is: would it
> be worth the time and effort? Would using git instead of subversion
> scare people just like still using CVS seems to do nowadays? Or is
> this a good opportunity to learn something "new" while most of the
> pack is still gathered around SVN?
> 
> Any opinions?

If you're personally interested in the switch, I'd say do it.  It's a
great content manager.

The nice thing is that if you are using git, there's no reason why CVS
can't be updated alongside, at least in a read-only manner.  That way,
folks can choose which is most comfortable for them, when testing devel.

I'm the project lead of the Barry project
(http://www.netdirect.ca/software/packages/barry/)
and that's what I do.  I do all my development in git, and then when I'm
ready, I push all my changes out to multiple "backup" sites, including
an internal CVS, the Sourceforge CVS, an internal git repo, and a public
git repo on repo.or.cz.  This is scripted, and my script is in the git repo.

This works mainly because submissions are done via patch, or via git
from other people's repos (only 1 so far, but I'm hoping for more :) ).
The CVS repositories are only updated by me.  I don't know if this is a
drawback for adonthell.

One nice thing about repo.or.cz is that people can open up their own 'forks'
and push their changes there.  Then when they are ready, they can post to
the mailing list and you can pull from their tree.  These forks are listed
on the same page as the main project, forming a little community of common
git repos.

Going this route kinda turns you into the "benevolent dictator" of the
linux kernel model.  As long as people are free to make their own git
trees, I think this is a fine model to follow, but others have their
own opinions.  If the Savannah git repo is open to multiple pushers,
then a CVS copy might be harder to keep up to date.  I haven't tried this
myself.

I'm definitely a git fan, and would gladly answer any questions I can.
But the decision obviously should come down to what makes you most
productive.

As a side note, I use git when I play with adonthell.  I checkout the
CVS sources, and then commit them to git, and make my changes there,
until I'm ready to send a patch.  Almost all my work on open source projects
is done with git, regardless of the SCM used by the project itself.

- Chris