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:
40: There's a [[second page|hgtodo.mdwn]] with a list of work that needs
41: to be done.
42:
43: ### Issues
44:
45: Technical concerns (demands on the system's operational model)
46: * atomic commits / changesets
47: * rename support
48: * authenticating commits
49: * numbered versions
50: * branch handling
51: * tag handling
52: * partial checkouts
53: ** partial trees
54: ** partial history
55: * blacklist extension (which is a legal requirement)
56: * being able to migrate away in the future
57: * ...
58:
59: Conversion of CVS repository phenomena
60: * vendor branches
61: * conversion of repo-copies and similar CVS horrors
62: * adding rename metadata to already-done moves
63: * pkgsrc not-really-vendor imports
64: * developer usernames vs. email addresses in log messages and commit metadata
65: * non-ascii text in log messages
66: * version references in log messages
67: * retaining CVS file version numbers as metadata
68: * restoring the pre-settlement history and/or including the CSRG history
69:
70: Implementation concerns (demands on the system as it exists)
71: * general performance
72: * importing into base, or not
73: * storage requirements vs. small systems
74: * memory requirements vs. small systems
75: * possible workarounds for small systems
76: * ...
77:
78: Community deployment issues
79: * what becomes of anoncvs
80: * making use of version numbers in mailing lists / security advisories
81: * patches/contributions/commits from non-developers
82: * collaborating with non-developers
83:
84: Developer deployment issues
85: * commit procedures
86: * development branch procedures
87: * vendor branch procedures
88: * private branch procedures
89: * collaboration without pushing to the master repositories
90: * rebasing vs. merging
91: * how to refer to other commits in log messages
92:
93: Many of these issues are already documented in [[the existing
94: workflows writeup|hgnb.mdwn]].
95:
96: Releng deployment issues
97: * changes to the way pullups are filed
98: * release commit procedures
99: * release branch procedures
100: * dealing with accidental commits to release branches
101: * preventing accidental merges into release branches
102: * extracting formal release tarballs
103: * shipping source tarballs
104: * ...
105:
106: Backend/admins deployment issues
107: * log_accum / source-changes mails
108: * access control for whole trees
109: * access control for subsections of trees
110: * backups
111: * pushing to anoncvs
112: * ...
113:
114: cvs assumptions / scripted usage in the tree
115: * pkgsrc: changes-entry and commit-changes-entry
116: * pkgsrc: guide regen
117: * ...
118:
119: Other questions
120: * running live in parallel with CVS during a transition period
121: * gatewaying to other VCS frontends
122:
123:
124:
125:
CVSweb for NetBSD wikisrc <wikimaster@NetBSD.org> software: FreeBSD-CVSweb