/cvs-fast-export

my diagnostic hacks to the Eric S. Raymond / Keith Packard project

Primary LanguageCOtherNOASSERTION

= README for cvs-fast-export =

This program analyzes a collection of RCS files in a CVS repository
(or outside of one) and, when possible, emits an equivalent history in
the form of a fast-import stream.  Not all possible histories can be
rendered this way; the program tries to emit useful warnings when it
can't.  The program can also produce a visualization of the resulting
commit DAG in the DOT format handled by the graphviz suite.

This program could have been called rcs-fast-export with equal
appropriateness; the cvs-fast-export name was chosen to avoid
colliding with a pre-existing script with that name by Giuseppe
Bilotta.

The analysis stage of this code originally travelled as "parsecvs" 
and was written by Keith Packard in early 2006.  It was briefly 
maintained by Bart Massey before passing to Eric S. Raymond in 
late 2012; ESR wrote the fast-export output stage and renamed the
program to reflect its new function. Alan Barrett wrote the 
improved progress meter.

The distribution includes a tool, cvssync, for fetching masters from
CVS remote repositories so cvs-fast-export can see them.  You will
need rsync installed to use it.

This code has a regression-test suite; invoke it with "make check".
You will need RCS and SCCS installed to run the tests, but they're 
not required for production use of cvs-fast-export.

See also the NEWS and TODO files.  There is an (incomplete) tour of
the internals in hacking.asc.