AW: Status update - version 5.2.2, cvs->git conversion, plans

[Bastian M. <bma...@we...>]

> 
> We seem to be talking past each other.
> I do not care about further tweaks to the tags or branches.
> Their conversion is sufficiently good.
> 
> The remaining issue is incorrectly converted timestamp and author
attribution.
> I found a script that automates a recipe that is basically
> 
(snip)
> 
> However I tried using this recipe to make one change and it failed.
> The filter-branch step spit out progress updates for about half an hour
> and then died.   Repository too large or too complicated?
> Some issue with branch structure that is non-fatal form most purposes but
trips
> up this specific operation?
> Whatever, it doesn't work.
> 
> The other alternative is to use reposurgeon during, rather than after, the
> conversion.  Bastian was having problems with that path also.
> 
> 	Ethan
> 

What I have been trying to do is to manually add author changes to the Eric
Raymond's reconvert script.  The example command given was:
 <es...@th...!2017-11-04T16:44:25> setfield author "Frd J. Foonly
<fr...@fo...>"
(which according to the docs probably should instead be
<2017-11-04T16:44:25! es...@th...> setfield author "Frd J. Foonly
<fr...@fo...>"

Unfortunately, such commands do not "find" the entry, not even with the tip
version of reposurgeon.
So I am kind of stuck for the moment.

Typical cases where this becomes necessary to correctly attribute the code
change:
	* Missing ChangeLog entry to go along with the code commit (but
maybe added later in a separate commit)
	* ChangeLog modifications to additional author lines that make
reposurgeon pick the wrong line
	* (Copy/paste) Errors of the author / date line (incorrect date
and/or author)

For a list of easy-to-spot candidates see e.g. the output of

    git log -i --grep  "patch.*by" --format="%aI %ae %ce %s" | awk "{ if
(\$2 == \$3) { print \$0 } }"

This selects all commits which have a "patch by" in the commit message but
the committer is identical to the claimed author.  Other "suspects" can be
found with "patch from" or "SF patch #" / "Patch #".
All in all I so far identified <100 author attributions which could be
amended. 

Personally, I think we should get these corrected - if reasonably possible.
But my time at the moment is limited. Maybe locating the /commit message/ or
the mailbox_in commands would work here, but I haven't tested that yet.

  Bastian