This week I’ve decided to put my work on Cool Cavemen’s concert videos aside, and work instead on refreshing our online store . After all, fans are requesting this , so I can’t escape my duty…

The theme the store is based on is Drupify , an adaptation of the RokWebify Joomla theme . All these themes are licensed under the GPL, so I have to share all my modifications with the community. This is a great opportunity to seriously experiment with Git (at last!).

Here is my plan:

  1. Make an exact copy of Drupify’s code base in my GitHub repository.

  2. Hack it in this playground.

  3. ???

  4. Profit!  :D

Problem: Drupify lives in a CVS repository  .

Solution: Git features a cvsimport  command.

Before going further, we need to install cvsps . For MacPorts users, this is as simple as: 

$ sudo port install cvsps
Password:
--->  Computing dependencies for cvsps
--->  Fetching cvsps
--->  Attempting to fetch cvsps-2.1.tar.gz from https://arn.se.distfiles.macports.org/cvsps
--->  Attempting to fetch cvsps-2.1.tar.gz from https://distfiles.macports.org/cvsps
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for cvsps
--->  Extracting cvsps
--->  Applying patches to cvsps
--->  Configuring cvsps
--->  Building cvsps
--->  Staging cvsps into destroot
--->  Installing cvsps @2.1_1
--->  Activating cvsps @2.1_1
--->  Cleaning cvsps

Then we create a temporary copy of Drupify’s CVS repository: 

$ git cvsimport -a -k -d:pserver:anonymous:[email protected]:/cvs/drupal-contrib -C drupify-copy contributions/themes/drupify
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/kevin/drupify-copy/.git/
parse error on user@server in pserver
cvs rlog: Logging contributions/themes/drupify
cvs rlog: Logging contributions/themes/drupify/css
cvs rlog: Logging contributions/themes/drupify/images

The new Git repository automatically created is named drupify-copy . Here is how it looks like in GitX (notice tags and branches):

To keep things clean and tidy, I want to relocate all the content of this repository to a drupify-fork folder. Inspired by Pedro Melo , we’ll use the git filter-branch to do this job: 

$ cd drupify-copy
$ git filter-branch -f --prune-empty --tree-filter '
  mkdir -p /tmp/drupify-fork;
  mv $(ls -A) /tmp/drupify-fork;
  mv /tmp/drupify-fork drupify-fork
' -- --all
Rewrite a9319cebb234c46cc8e0ada95ffb2cd81b87993c (17/17)
Ref 'refs/heads/DRUPAL-5' was rewritten
Ref 'refs/heads/DRUPAL-6--1' was rewritten
Ref 'refs/heads/master' was rewritten
Ref 'refs/heads/origin' was rewritten
Ref 'refs/tags/DRUPAL-6--1-0' was rewritten

The command we just used alter all the commits, in a way that let Drupify act as if it was located, since the beginning of its history, in the drupify-fork sub-directory.

By default, filter-branch creates a backup of the tree using references prefixed by refs/original/ : 

$ git show-ref
4c33470f0f59bcfe7d0d88ee64945bb5625d6d02 refs/heads/DRUPAL-5
8930672eaf97eefa8f9d4ed9f5144f466a97728f refs/heads/DRUPAL-6--1
e5907fac0160febbd91f0cda73633b3e6eafa2a9 refs/heads/master
e5907fac0160febbd91f0cda73633b3e6eafa2a9 refs/heads/origin
af9786625a280930b532541722806739e221ebda refs/original/refs/heads/DRUPAL-5
a9319cebb234c46cc8e0ada95ffb2cd81b87993c refs/original/refs/heads/DRUPAL-6--1
328f3440e202ed72253974dbbbd45f39db23ea4a refs/original/refs/heads/master
328f3440e202ed72253974dbbbd45f39db23ea4a refs/original/refs/heads/origin
957bb22704bc8188c0421b68cbb2f52a3fdcdef6 refs/original/refs/tags/DRUPAL-6--1-0
ee44c42250a2552c1dbef2f7165d65179e1d19c6 refs/tags/DRUPAL-6--1-0

We’re not the only ones to not see through this mess. GitX seems to be confused too:

But according Jakub Narębski on the Git mailing-list , we can safely removes Git’s backups: 

$ rm -Rf .git/refs/original
$ git gc --prune=now
Counting objects: 106, done.
Delta compression using up to 2 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (88/88), done.
Writing objects: 100% (106/106), done.
Total 106 (delta 40), reused 0 (delta 0)

After the cleaning, references are back to normal: 

$ git show-ref
4c33470f0f59bcfe7d0d88ee64945bb5625d6d02 refs/heads/DRUPAL-5
8930672eaf97eefa8f9d4ed9f5144f466a97728f refs/heads/DRUPAL-6--1
e5907fac0160febbd91f0cda73633b3e6eafa2a9 refs/heads/master
e5907fac0160febbd91f0cda73633b3e6eafa2a9 refs/heads/origin
ee44c42250a2552c1dbef2f7165d65179e1d19c6 refs/tags/DRUPAL-6--1-0

We can then fire up GitX to get the ultimate proof that the relocation operation didn’t change anything, but the base folder (and SHA hashes):

It’s time to import all this code in our main repository. First, get a local copy of our public GitHub code base: 

$ cd
$ git clone [email protected]:kdeldycke/kev-code.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/kevin/kev-code/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 5, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (3/3), done.
remote: Total 5 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (5/5), done.

Now let’s include our temporary drupify-copy as a tracked remote repository: 

$ cd kev-code/
$ git remote add drupify ../drupify-copy
$ git fetch drupify
warning: no common commits
remote: Counting objects: 106, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (48/48), done.
remote: Total 106 (delta 40), reused 106 (delta 40)
Receiving objects: 100% (106/106), 61.62 KiB, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (40/40), done.
From ../drupify-copy
 * [new branch]      DRUPAL-5   -> drupify/DRUPAL-5
 * [new branch]      DRUPAL-6--1 -> drupify/DRUPAL-6--1
 * [new branch]      master     -> drupify/master
 * [new branch]      origin     -> drupify/origin
From ../drupify-copy
 * [new tag]         DRUPAL-6--1-0 -> DRUPAL-6--1-0

As you can see, all the little particularities of the remote repository are well tracked (HEAD, branches and tags are there): 

$ git remote show drupify
* remote drupify
  Fetch URL: ../drupify-copy
  Push  URL: ../drupify-copy
  HEAD branch (remote HEAD is ambiguous, may be one of the following):
    master
    origin
  Remote branches:
    DRUPAL-5    tracked
    DRUPAL-6--1 tracked
    master      tracked
    origin      tracked
  Local ref configured for 'git push':
    master pushes to master (local out of date)

Another way to check this is to list all tracked remote branches: 

$ git branch -r
  drupify/DRUPAL-5
  drupify/DRUPAL-6--1
  drupify/master
  drupify/origin
  origin/HEAD -> origin/master

It’s time to merge all our tracked remote code (from drupify-copy ) in our local repository ( kev-code ). The branch I’m interested in is DRUPAL-6--1 , as it holds the latest Drupify code for Drupal 6.x: 

$ git merge drupify/DRUPAL-6--1
Merge made by recursive.
 drupify-fork/README.txt               |   16 +
 drupify-fork/css/editor_content.css   |    7 +
 drupify-fork/css/index.html           |    1 +
 drupify-fork/css/template_ie.css      |   55 +++
 drupify-fork/drupify.info             |   11 +
 drupify-fork/images/arrow.png         |  Bin 0 -> 278 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/bg.png            |  Bin 0 -> 315 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/bottom-bg.png     |  Bin 0 -> 583 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/col-divider.png   |  Bin 0 -> 200 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/emailButton.png   |  Bin 0 -> 454 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/favicon.ico       |  Bin 0 -> 1150 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/footer-bg.png     |  Bin 0 -> 544 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/footer-l.png      |  Bin 0 -> 593 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/footer-r.png      |  Bin 0 -> 592 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/footer-rocket.png |  Bin 0 -> 3391 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/header-bg.png     |  Bin 0 -> 638 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/header-l.png      |  Bin 0 -> 430 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/header-r.png      |  Bin 0 -> 444 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/indent1.png       |  Bin 0 -> 214 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/indent2.png       |  Bin 0 -> 214 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/indent3.png       |  Bin 0 -> 214 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/indent4.png       |  Bin 0 -> 214 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/index.html        |    1 +
 drupify-fork/images/menu-bg.png       |  Bin 0 -> 343 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/menu-bullet.png   |  Bin 0 -> 933 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/menu-divider.png  |  Bin 0 -> 200 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/pdf_button.png    |  Bin 0 -> 482 bytes
 drupify-fork/images/printButton.png   |  Bin 0 -> 467 bytes
 drupify-fork/logo.png                 |  Bin 0 -> 27829 bytes
 drupify-fork/node.tpl.php             |   31 ++
 drupify-fork/page.tpl.php             |  173 ++++++++++
 drupify-fork/screenshot.png           |  Bin 0 -> 11289 bytes
 drupify-fork/style.css                |  593 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 drupify-fork/template.php             |   10 +
 34 files changed, 898 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/README.txt
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/css/editor_content.css
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/css/index.html
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/css/template_ie.css
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/drupify.info
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/arrow.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/bg.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/bottom-bg.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/col-divider.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/emailButton.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/favicon.ico
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/footer-bg.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/footer-l.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/footer-r.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/footer-rocket.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/header-bg.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/header-l.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/header-r.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/indent1.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/indent2.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/indent3.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/indent4.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/index.html
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/menu-bg.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/menu-bullet.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/menu-divider.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/pdf_button.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/images/printButton.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/logo.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/node.tpl.php
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/page.tpl.php
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/screenshot.png
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/style.css
 create mode 100644 drupify-fork/template.php

We can remove the attached drupify repository and its local drupify-copy source: 

$ git remote rm drupify
$ cd ..
$ rm -rf ./drupify-copy

At this stage, here is what our repository looks like:

To keep all the details that were created by git cvsimport , we can add by hand all the missing refs. The only difference with the original ones is that I unified the namespace with a drupify/ prefix: 

$ git update-ref refs/heads/drupify/DRUPAL-6--1 8930672
$ git update-ref refs/heads/drupify/master e5907fa
$ git update-ref refs/heads/drupify/origin e5907fa
$ git tag drupify/DRUPAL-6--1-0 DRUPAL-6--1-0
$ git tag -d DRUPAL-6--1-0
Deleted tag 'DRUPAL-6--1-0'

And finally, we can contemplate our work:

This let me work cleanly on the CVS branch I wanted to in the first place. But there is one missing thing: all other tracked remote branches were not merged properly. I really wanted to import all of them (especially the DRUPAL-5 branch), to keep a perfect copy of the original CSV tree. But I failed to find a way. Does anyone have a clue?