[Box Backup] Proposal: Switch to Git version control

[Chris Wilson]

Dear Box Backup users,

Thanks to James O'Gorman for his very hard work, I think we are about 
ready to switch over to Git for version control, hosted on GitHub
<https://github.com/boxbackup/boxbackup>.

This is your last chance to raise any objections :) If nobody objects, in 
about 24 hours we will disable the Subversion repository and the Github 
account will become the new master repo.

Thanks, Chris.

On Sat, 12 Apr 2014, Chris Wilson wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> James O'Gorman and I have been discussing the merits of switching to using 
> Git instead of Subversion for version control, and moving the code to Github.
>
> Advantages that I'm aware of:
>
> * I already use Git for many projects, and I'm now very familiar and 
> comfortable with it. I started using git-svn on Box Backup earlier this year, 
> to get the advantages of Git such as working offline and working with 
> branches easily. I would get more benefit if our main repository was in Git, 
> not in Subversion.
>
> * We'd get credit on Github for our contributions to Box Backup.
>
> * We'd have the Github issue tracker which is much better than Trac's and 
> solves part of the spam problem that forced us to disable registrations on 
> Trac, which prevents people from submitting tickets.
>
> The main disadvantage that I can think of is that checking out and updating 
> the source code would require knowledge of Git instead of Subversion, which 
> is newer and therefore less common.
>
> I am NOT currently proposing to move the website or the mailing list. I know 
> that hosting the mailing list on Mailman is painful for James, and would be 
> happy to investigate alternatives that make it easier, but we can do that 
> independently.
>
> I see no particular reason to move the website off Trac unless we can find a 
> better Wiki solution. Github Pages might be it, or it might not. It would be 
> nice to be able to edit Pages in Markdown, clone a copy of the entire wiki 
> and convert it to HTML as offline documentation.
>
> James has already done a lot of work in preparing a Git-SVN configuration 
> that can be used to migrate our code with full history to Github. I think 
> he's using this configuration that he sent me by email a month ago:
>
>>>> My migrate had converted most of the Subversion usernames to "Full Name 
>>>> <email>" as is the Git style, and I think excluded the git-svn stuff in 
>>>> the commit messages, as well as creating each person's branches.
>>> 
>>> How did you do it?
>> 
>> Not easily! It took a lot of fiddling and tweaking and spending hours 
>> re-running the import. Here's my .git/config:
>
> [core]
> 	repositoryformatversion = 0
> 	filemode = true
> 	bare = false
> 	logallrefupdates = true
> 	ignorecase = true
> 	precomposeunicode = false
> [svn-remote "svn"]
> 	noMetadata = 1
> 	ignore-paths = ^(bitten|boxbackup-web|james|packages)
> 	url = https://www.boxbackup.org/svn/box
> 	fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
> 	branches = ./*:refs/remotes/*
> 	branches = ben/*:refs/remotes/ben/*
> 	branches = chris/{acl,boxi,general,retry-debug}:refs/remotes/chris/*
> 	branches = chris/win32/*:refs/remotes/chris/win32/*
> 	branches = chromi/*:refs/remotes/chromi/*
> 	branches = 
> gary/{0.09-orig,boxbackup-0.09,boxbackup-0.09-mod}:refs/remotes/gary/*
> 	branches = features/*:refs/remotes/features/*
> 	branches = invisnet/{perfhack1,vs2010}:refs/remotes/invisnet/*
> 	branches = martin/*:refs/remotes/martin/*
> 	branches = nick/*:refs/remotes/nick/*
> 	tags = RELEASE/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
> 	tags = snapshots/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
> [svn]
> 	authorsfile = /Users/jamesog/git/users.txt
>
>> And the authorsfile looks like:
>
> ben = Ben Summers <ben at fluffy.co...>
> cbkm = Kenny Millington <kenny.millington at 3ait.co...>
> chris = Chris Wilson <chris at qwirx...>
> chromi = Jonathan Morton <chromi at chromatix.org...>
> daveb = Dave Bamford <dave at logical-progress...>
> gary = Gary <gary at nomail>
> invisnet = Charles Lecklider <boxbackup at invis...>
> jamesog = James O'Gorman <james at netinertia.co...>
> martin = Martin Ebourne <martin at ebourne.me...>
> nick = Nick Knight <nick at nomail>
> per = Per Reedtz Thomsen <pthomsen at reedtz...>
> petjal = Pete Jalajas <pj08 at gigalock...>
> stenor = Stefan Norlin <stefan.norlin at infoflexconnect...>
>
>> I couldn't find the email addresses for Gary or Nick.
>
> If you could confirm your Github email addresses then we can make sure you 
> get full credit on Github for your commits if the migration goes ahead.
>
> So please could you let us know if you agree or disagree with this change?
>
> Cheers, Chris.
>

-- 
_____ __     _
\  __/ / ,__(_)_  | Chris Wilson <chris+sig at qwirx.com> Cambs UK |
/ (_/ ,\/ _/ /_ \ | Security/C/C++/Java/Ruby/Perl/SQL Developer |
\__/_/_/_//_/___/ | We are GNU : free your mind & your software |