# git-archimport

## NAME



           git-archimport - Import a GNU Arch repository into Git
    


## SYNOPSIS



           _git archimport_ [-h] [-v] [-o] [-a] [-f] [-T] [-D <depth>] [-t <tempdir>]
                          <archive>/<branch>[:<git-branch>]...
    


## DESCRIPTION



           Imports a project from one or more GNU Arch repositories. It will
           follow branches and repositories within the namespaces defined by
           the <archive>/<branch> parameters supplied. If it cannot find the
           remote branch a merge comes from it will just import it as a
           regular commit. If it can find it, it will mark it as a merge
           whenever possible (see discussion below).
    
           The script expects you to provide the key roots where it can start
           the import from an _initial import_ or _tag_ type of Arch commit. It
           will follow and import new branches within the provided roots.
    
           It expects to be dealing with one project only. If it sees
           branches that have different roots, it will refuse to run. In that
           case, edit your <archive>/<branch> parameters to define clearly
           the scope of the import.
    
           _git archimport_ uses **tla** extensively in the background to access
           the Arch repository. Make sure you have a recent version of **tla**
           available in the path. **tla** must know about the repositories you
           pass to _git archimport_.
    
           For the initial import, _git archimport_ expects to find itself in
           an empty directory. To follow the development of a project that
           uses Arch, rerun _git archimport_ with the same parameters as the
           initial import to perform incremental imports.
    
           While _git archimport_ will try to create sensible branch names for
           the archives that it imports, it is also possible to specify Git
           branch names manually. To do so, write a Git branch name after
           each <archive>/<branch> parameter, separated by a colon. This way,
           you can shorten the Arch branch names and convert Arch jargon to
           Git jargon, for example mapping a "PROJECT--devo--VERSION" branch
           to "master".
    
           Associating multiple Arch branches to one Git branch is possible;
           the result will make the most sense only if no commits are made to
           the first branch, after the second branch is created. Still, this
           is useful to convert Arch repositories that had been rotated
           periodically.
    


## MERGES



           Patch merge data from Arch is used to mark merges in Git as well.
           Git does not care much about tracking patches, and only considers
           a merge when a branch incorporates all the commits since the point
           they forked. The end result is that Git will have a good idea of
           how far branches have diverged. So the import process does lose
           some patch-trading metadata.
    
           Fortunately, when you try and merge branches imported from Arch,
           Git will find a good merge base, and it has a good chance of
           identifying patches that have been traded out-of-sequence between
           the branches.
    


## OPTIONS



           -h
               Display usage.
    
           -v
               Verbose output.
    
           -T
               Many tags. Will create a tag for every commit, reflecting the
               commit name in the Arch repository.
    
           -f
               Use the fast patchset import strategy. This can be
               significantly faster for large trees, but cannot handle
               directory renames or permissions changes. The default strategy
               is slow and safe.
    
           -o
               Use this for compatibility with old-style branch names used by
               earlier versions of _git archimport_. Old-style branch names
               were category--branch, whereas new-style branch names are
               archive,category--branch--version. In both cases, names given
               on the command-line will override the automatically-generated
               ones.
    
           -D <depth>
               Follow merge ancestry and attempt to import trees that have
               been merged from. Specify a depth greater than 1 if patch logs
               have been pruned.
    
           -a
               Attempt to auto-register archives at
               **http://mirrors.sourcecontrol.net** This is particularly useful
               with the -D option.
    
           -t <tmpdir>
               Override the default tempdir.
    
           <archive>/<branch>
               <archive>/<branch> identifier in a format that **tla log**
               understands.
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


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