Re: [boost] [conversion] Isolating the phantom file changes problem

Subject: Re: [boost] [conversion] Isolating the phantom file changes problem
From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-11-27 11:16:32

On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 10:47 AM, Daniel James <daniel_at_[hidden]>wrote:

> On 27 November 2013 14:25, Beman Dawes <bdawes_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> >
> >> Since we can't fix these files in historical versions we could re-run
> >> the conversion with gitattributes that unsets the text attribute for
> >> the problematic files (something like "*.bat -text", "*.vsproj -text",
> >> "*.svg -text"). Then in git update the gitattributes (to something
> >> like "*.bat text eol=crlf", "*.vsproj text eol=crlf", "*.svg text")
> >> and normalize the files so that it does what we want. We can script
> >> that, so it shouldn't require too much work.
> >>
> >
> > As long as we are sure the .gitattributes are correct, and then
> > renormalize, why do we have to rerun the conversion at all? What am I
> > missing?
>
> If someone checks out an older version of a module (i.e. before
> normalization) then they'll still have this problem. If the conversion
> is rerun with gitattributes set as I described then I don't think they
> will. It won't fix the files, it'll just tell git not to expect them
> to have the correct newlines.
>

Ah! Understood. But like you, I don't see that as a big deal.

> But this isn't a big deal, and there are possibly issues with this
> approach, so it might not be worth it.
>

I would really like to avoid rerunning the conversion, since just to be
sure I would want to then rerun the independent verification checks. That
involves a lot of semi-manual steps, and it has taken me the better part of
three days so far. I'm having to rerun the trunk/develop verification right
now because it ran out of disk space last night. Sigh.

I'd also like to hear other opinions, particularly from Dave, on this
before we make a final decision.

--Beman