data
('from' SP <committish> LF)?
('merge' SP <committish> LF)?
- (filemodify | filedelete | filedeleteall)*
+ (filemodify | filedelete | filecopy | filerename | filedeleteall)*
LF
....
and are not interpreted by Git. Currently they must be encoded in
UTF-8, as fast-import does not permit other encodings to be specified.
-Zero or more `filemodify`, `filedelete` and `filedeleteall` commands
+Zero or more `filemodify`, `filedelete`, `filecopy`, `filerename`
+and `filedeleteall` commands
may be included to update the contents of the branch prior to
creating the commit. These commands may be supplied in any order.
However it is recommended that a `filedeleteall` command preceed
-all `filemodify` commands in the same commit, as `filedeleteall`
+all `filemodify`, `filecopy` and `filerename` commands in the same
+commit, as `filedeleteall`
wipes the branch clean (see below).
`author`
`filedelete`
^^^^^^^^^^^^
-Included in a `commit` command to remove a file from the branch.
-If the file removal makes its directory empty, the directory will
+Included in a `commit` command to remove a file or recursively
+delete an entire directory from the branch. If the file or directory
+removal makes its parent directory empty, the parent directory will
be automatically removed too. This cascades up the tree until the
first non-empty directory or the root is reached.
'D' SP <path> LF
....
-here `<path>` is the complete path of the file to be removed.
+here `<path>` is the complete path of the file or subdirectory to
+be removed from the branch.
See `filemodify` above for a detailed description of `<path>`.
+`filecopy`
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+Recursively copies an existing file or subdirectory to a different
+location within the branch. The existing file or directory must
+exist. If the destination exists it will be completely replaced
+by the content copied from the source.
+
+....
+ 'C' SP <path> SP <path> LF
+....
+
+here the first `<path>` is the source location and the second
+`<path>` is the destination. See `filemodify` above for a detailed
+description of what `<path>` may look like. To use a source path
+that contains SP the path must be quoted.
+
+A `filecopy` command takes effect immediately. Once the source
+location has been copied to the destination any future commands
+applied to the source location will not impact the destination of
+the copy.
+
+`filerename`
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+Renames an existing file or subdirectory to a different location
+within the branch. The existing file or directory must exist. If
+the destination exists it will be replaced by the source directory.
+
+....
+ 'R' SP <path> SP <path> LF
+....
+
+here the first `<path>` is the source location and the second
+`<path>` is the destination. See `filemodify` above for a detailed
+description of what `<path>` may look like. To use a source path
+that contains SP the path must be quoted.
+
+A `filerename` command takes effect immediately. Once the source
+location has been renamed to the destination any future commands
+applied to the source location will create new files there and not
+impact the destination of the rename.
+
+Note that a `filerename` is the same as a `filecopy` followed by a
+`filedelete` of the source location. There is a slight performance
+advantage to using `filerename`, but the advantage is so small
+that it is never worth trying to convert a delete/add pair in
+source material into a rename for fast-import. This `filerename`
+command is provided just to simplify frontends that already have
+rename information and don't want bother with decomposing it into a
+`filecopy` followed by a `filedelete`.
+
`filedeleteall`
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Included in a `commit` command to remove all files (and also all
'from' SP <committish> LF
'tagger' SP <name> SP LT <email> GT SP <when> LF
data
- LF
....
where `<name>` is the name of the tag to create.
GIT
---
Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
-