Re: [RFC] Using git-p4 on project with branches

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008, Tor Arvid Lund wrote:

Hi!

I really appreciate the work that is done with allowing us poor souls
stuck with perforce at work to use git via git-p4. But I'm wondering
how to make it work when there are several branches on the perforce
server.

Say, for instance, that I have this setup:

//depot/old/path/to/projectX
//depot/new/path/to/projectX_Devel_Branch
//depot/new/path/to/projectX_Release_1.2_Branch
//depot/new/path/to/projectOther

It would be really nice, if I were able to make a projectX.git
repository with the 'old', 'devel' and '1.2' branches. It seems that
the --detect-branches argument to P4Sync wants me to enter
//depot/new/path/to as the root path, and detect p4 branchspecs from
there. That works poorly for me, since it would also include
projectOther, which I don't want. It would also not include the 'old'
branch.

I have looked briefly at the git-p4 code, but don't know it very well
yet. Anyway, I suspect this functionality is not implemented... I
might try to do this myself, and if anybody has ideas on how to get
started, it would be much appreciated.

You might want to also look at git-p4raw, which does extremely clever 
branch tracking, but acts on the perforce server database directly. If you 
figured out how to supply its engine with information through the client, 
it would be really great (but likely slow on the order of "leave it 
importing over the weekend").

To support submitting changelists back to perforce, it would probably
need some configuration (to determine which path to submit to in
perforce)... Like:

[git-p4 "branches"]
        old = //depot/old/path/to/projectX
        devel = //depot/new/path/to/projectX_Devel_Branch
        1.2 = //depot/new/path/to/projectX_Release_1.2_Branch

You'd get "master = //depot/new/path/to/projectX_Devel_Branch", probably, 
by default, and then could add "old" and "1.2".

Well, I guess I'm just wondering if this is something anybody but me
would like to have? Or if there is another/better way to go about
doing it...

I'd certainly like it. (But it's likely to be really tricky.)

	-Daniel
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