Annotation of wikisrc/users/dholland/hgpath.mdwn, revision 1.4
1.1 dholland 1: ## NetBSD migration path to Mercurial
2:
3: This page describes what's involved in migrating NetBSD from CVS to
4: Mercurial.
5:
6: ### What Mercurial is
7:
8: [[Mercurial|http://mercurial.selenic.com]] is an open-source version
9: control system.
10: It is a distributed version control system based on the commit
11: hashcode model shared with git and other DVCSes.
12: It is fast and powerful and has long emphasized a certain polish of
13: production.
14:
15: ### Why Mercurial
16:
17: Mercurial is a modern VCS; it is maintained; it is capable of
18: handling the NetBSD repositories; and it is cleanly designed, simple,
19: and easy to use.
20: The first three of these properties are necessary requirements for
21: NetBSD to migrate (I don't think any of them are particularly
22: controversial); the last sets it apart from git, which is the other
23: immediately available alternative.
24: (The third option, writing our own, is not currently realistic.)
25:
26: One could write a lot of gung-ho IT IS REALLY GR8!!!11!! boosterism
27: here too, of course, but I'll leave that for someone else.
28:
29: ### Migration
30:
31: There are two categories of issues related to migrating a project the
32: size of NetBSD: first, what the project and the world around the
33: project will look like after the migration is done, and second, what
34: things need to be done to get there.
35: The purpose of this page is to tackle the first: what things in the
36: project will be different and what they'll be like.
37: This includes not just user-facing things like commit procedures but
38: also backend considerations and administration.
39:
1.4 ! dholland 40: There's a [[second page|hgtodo]] with a list of work that needs
1.1 dholland 41: to be done.
42:
43: ### Issues
44:
45: Technical concerns (demands on the system's operational model)
1.2 dholland 46:
1.1 dholland 47: * atomic commits / changesets
48: * rename support
49: * authenticating commits
50: * numbered versions
51: * branch handling
52: * tag handling
53: * partial checkouts
54: ** partial trees
55: ** partial history
56: * blacklist extension (which is a legal requirement)
57: * being able to migrate away in the future
58: * ...
59:
60: Conversion of CVS repository phenomena
1.3 dholland 61:
1.1 dholland 62: * vendor branches
63: * conversion of repo-copies and similar CVS horrors
64: * adding rename metadata to already-done moves
65: * pkgsrc not-really-vendor imports
66: * developer usernames vs. email addresses in log messages and commit metadata
67: * non-ascii text in log messages
68: * version references in log messages
69: * retaining CVS file version numbers as metadata
70: * restoring the pre-settlement history and/or including the CSRG history
71:
72: Implementation concerns (demands on the system as it exists)
1.3 dholland 73:
1.1 dholland 74: * general performance
75: * importing into base, or not
76: * storage requirements vs. small systems
77: * memory requirements vs. small systems
78: * possible workarounds for small systems
79: * ...
80:
81: Community deployment issues
1.3 dholland 82:
1.1 dholland 83: * what becomes of anoncvs
84: * making use of version numbers in mailing lists / security advisories
85: * patches/contributions/commits from non-developers
86: * collaborating with non-developers
87:
88: Developer deployment issues
1.3 dholland 89:
1.1 dholland 90: * commit procedures
91: * development branch procedures
92: * vendor branch procedures
93: * private branch procedures
94: * collaboration without pushing to the master repositories
95: * rebasing vs. merging
96: * how to refer to other commits in log messages
97:
98: Many of these issues are already documented in [[the existing
99: workflows writeup|hgnb.mdwn]].
100:
101: Releng deployment issues
1.3 dholland 102:
1.1 dholland 103: * changes to the way pullups are filed
104: * release commit procedures
105: * release branch procedures
106: * dealing with accidental commits to release branches
107: * preventing accidental merges into release branches
108: * extracting formal release tarballs
109: * shipping source tarballs
110: * ...
111:
112: Backend/admins deployment issues
1.3 dholland 113:
1.1 dholland 114: * log_accum / source-changes mails
115: * access control for whole trees
116: * access control for subsections of trees
117: * backups
118: * pushing to anoncvs
119: * ...
120:
121: cvs assumptions / scripted usage in the tree
1.3 dholland 122:
1.1 dholland 123: * pkgsrc: changes-entry and commit-changes-entry
124: * pkgsrc: guide regen
125: * ...
126:
127: Other questions
1.3 dholland 128:
1.1 dholland 129: * running live in parallel with CVS during a transition period
130: * gatewaying to other VCS frontends
131:
132:
133:
134:
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