Time to start wrapping up the conversion.

[<es...@th...>]

I've uploaded a fresh version of the conversion machinery where you
can fetch it at

wget http://www.catb.org/~esr/gnuplot-conversion.tar.gz

This version contains a new script, 'forcepush'. After running
reconvert, you can run forcepush to nuke the the SourceForge git
repository and replace it with the new conversion.  (You must
have Tcl and Expect installed for this to work.)

The script does assume that your local username is the sane as your
SourceForge one, because I'm 'esr' both places.  If this is a
problem for anyone, I'm sure we can modify the "nuke" and "forcepush"
scripts to generalize them.

The entire conversion and replacement process is now implemented and
documented by the three scripts reconvert, nuke, and forcepush.  It
can be run at any time by anyone with the right SourceForge
credentials.

When doing repo conversions, I think it's important to show the work
so all its assumptions are auditable.  Also, we are now far enough
along in the process that if I have to run off to focus exclusively on
something else, somebody (most likely Dan Sebald or HBB) would be able
to finish the job.  So, this is my major deliverable; the rest is polishing.

Things still to be done:

1. The EMPTIES file in the conversion tarball needs to have real log
messages filled in for all those "*** empty log message ***" instances
(but don't touch the Check-Text headers; those are a safety measure
in case the commit dates drift, they should prevent clobbering of the
comment text in nearby commits).

A relatively easy way to do this: bring up EMPTIES in your favorite
editor, then run gitk on a repo conversion.  Looking at the diffs
gitk displays per commit should make it easy to write a useful change
comment.  Note that the topmost text box in the lower half of the
gitk display is for text search; if you type "*** empty log message
***" into it, you can use the up and down arrows off to the left
to quickly move between empty comments.

If all of you mail your EMPTIES changes back to me I'll take care of
collating them.  If the process runs long I might set up a
public repo for the conversion stuff.

2. The final disposition of the 3.7.x branch needs to be decided.  I
think it is soaking up more effort than it is worth and should be
dropped.  I'm pretty sure Ethan agrees.

We're almost done.  Let's get this wrapped up.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no
rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.
        -- Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 US 436 p. 491