replay git commits on repo with different root

Question

I am one of the current maintainers of the FreeGLUT project on sourceforge. This code is stored in an SVN repo, but to stimulate contributions of others, I want to make a git repo available. I already have a git-svn clone of the svn trunk up on github currently at github (made through SmartGit, which is not really compatible with git-svn actually).

I made this by cloning https://svn.code.sf.net/p/freeglut/code/trunk/freeglut. However, I now find that I should have cloned https://svn.code.sf.net/p/freeglut/code and have SmartGit's svn bridge figure out the branches and trunk.

I have made this new correct clone locally. Now the problem: I already have a few commits in my local git repo of the old/wrong clone. I would like to transfer these over to my new repo, but as the root directories on disk are not the same, a simple rebase strategy as outlined here would not work (I think).

I could do it with patches, as git apply has the --directory argument to prefix the paths in the patch files that would make things work, but then I would have to do it commit by commit. At least, I have not found a way to put multiple commits in a single patch file (without squashing) and replay them all on top of my HEAD.

How to I best solve my problem?

Sukkoth

possible duplicate of Applying commits from one subtree to another in same repo – Pathetic

@jthill, you are right, that does appear to be a duplicate. I didn't consider those search terms... – Sukkoth

Why would it be, it's not about the SAME repo but a different one. – Fratricide

Answer 1

Ok, it turns out that:

1. git format-patch can generate a file containing a range of commits, such as a whole branch.
2. git am with the --directory option can replay the commits contained in the patch file one by one (see here) and commit them for me.

Problem solved!

Sukkoth

nice answer.I didn't think this question this way. – Vitellin

The secret sauce to git format-patch seems to be the --root flag (How to use git format-patch on initial commit). However, another option is to git remote add other [email protected]:user/repo.git && git fetch other && git merge --allow-unrelated-histories --no-ff other/master -m "Merge history from other". – Wirework

Answer 2

Yes,you could do it with patches.

1. Reset last commit by using git reset --soft 'HEAD^'. or if you have 3 commits. just do git reset --soft HEAD~3
2. Do patches.

I think this answer explain it well.

Vitellin

thanks for the help! However, I don't see why i would want to reset head and then do patches, I have a clean head and only patches to apply. – Sukkoth