Re: Managing multiple branches in git

On Jun 2, 2009, at 4:32 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
>> I wonder whether it would help with this problem if we had a way to
>> locate the build products outside the tree, and maybe fix things up
>> so
>> that you can make the build products go to a different location
>> depending on which branch you're on.
>
> I'm beginning to seriously consider the idea that the git repository
> should think each branch is a separate directory subtree --- ie,
> completely abandon the notion that git is worth anything at all for
> managing multi-branch patches. If we have HEAD, REL8_3, etc as
> separate subtrees then we can easily have a single commit touching
> multiple branches in whatever way we want.
>
> The arguments that were put forward for switching to git all had to do
> with managing patches against HEAD. AFAIK hardly anyone but the core
> committers deals with back-patching at all, and so a structure like
> this
> isn't going to affect anyone else --- you'd just ignore the back-
> branch
> directory subtrees in your checkout.

If we're going to do that let's just keep using CVS. I would consider
a repository organized that way to be completely unusable; without
doing anything the system we have now is better than that.

...Robert