Changing source code control systems

[Paul Smith]

Hi all;

The time has come to move GNU make to a new SCM platform.  I know we've
had this discussion before with (obviously) inconclusive results.
However I really need to do some code rework, which would include some
file renaming etc.

Since the last discussion the landscape has changed.  The first change
is that I'm now using Git for my day job, so it's become the easiest
alternative for me.  The second change is that there are a large number
of other GNU projects (on and off Savannah) which have all switched to
Git and been successful with it, so it's hard to avoid it if you work on
GNU infrastructure projects.  Third, an msys port of Git is available
which seems quite usable for Windows users who don't like/want Cygwin.
And fourth there has been discussion about whether Bazaar is really
going to make it going forward--not because of anything wrong with
Bazaar per se, but just because Git seems to have sucked most of the
oxygen out of the SCM room.

So, this weekend (planned) I will be locking down the CVS access to the
GNU make source code in Savannah, and converting/importing the code into
the Savannah Git repository for GNU make.  I've already done a number of
test conversions locally and even made some local cleanup changes
post-conversion, as a test.

I will ask to have the CVS archive set up as a read-only mirror of the
Git repository for those who would prefer to continue using CVS: for
commit they can email me patches and I'll apply them.  Also there are
alternatives such as hg-git which is a Mercurial plugin allowing the
Mercurial client to use a Git back-end repository: I've heard some say
it's great and they use it every day, while others say it doesn't work
for them... I don't know.

I hope this is not too problematic.  Let me know if you have
questions/concerns/etc.

Cheers!