At Mon, 27 Oct 2025 17:11:24 -0700, Elliott Mitchell <ehem+netbsd%m5p.com@localhost> wrote: Subject: Re: irt: Re: Core statement on version control systems > > On Thu, Oct 09, 2025 at 12:51:07AM -0700, Greg A. Woods wrote: > > > > Now don't get me wrong -- I don't really care what kind of repository > > the official NetBSD sources are managed with, and what the core NetBSD > > developers want to use to do that work, just so long as there's a way to > > use Git as a third-party to both access the source and to collaborate > > with NetBSD developers. It could even stay in CVS if everyone promised, > > to stop messing with the CVS repository internals such that the hashes > > in the continuously migrated Git DAG were GUARANTEED to remain stable > > forever more. > > To be truly stable, you'll need to wait for the move to the Git > repository format. If stable for 2-5 years is good enough then waiting > for the move to Mercurial should be sufficient. If you want stable in 10 > years, you will need to wait for the Git transition. I'm not sure why you say that. All that's needed to stabilize the DAG in a scenario where CVS remains the authority is for the CVS repository to be off-limits from human interventions and for the continuous migration algorithm to be frozen such that it can never rewrite any part of an existing DAG. Then it shouldn't matter which format is the primary target. > The one trick is, why were shenanigans being done in CVS? Similar > shenanigans are quite possible with Git and Mercurial, the term is > "rebasing". The one trick is due to their peer-to-peer nature if enough > rebasing is done some prominent fork might take over... Often the fiddling in the CVS repo seems fairly innocent on the surface -- sometimes it's just to fix up something like an incorrect import. However it seems that all too often the result can still perturb the hashes in the DAG and then of course it is indeed equivalent to some idiot doing a force-push after rebasing the main branch that everyone else has already previously pulled from. -- Greg A. Woods <gwoods%acm.org@localhost> Kelowna, BC +1 250 762-7675 RoboHack <woods%robohack.ca@localhost> Planix, Inc. <woods%planix.com@localhost> Avoncote Farms <woods%avoncote.ca@localhost>
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