NAME
----
-git-archimport - Import an arch repository into git
+git-archimport - Import an Arch repository into git
SYNOPSIS
--------
-`git-archimport` [--option...] <args>
+[verse]
+`git-archimport` [-h] [-v] [-o] [-a] [-f] [-T] [-D depth] [-t tempdir]
+ <archive/branch> [ <archive/branch> ]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-The script expects you to provide the key roots where it can start the
-import from an 'initial import' or 'tag' type of Arch commit. It will
-then follow all the branching and tagging within the provided roots.
+Imports a project from one or more Arch repositories. It will follow branches
+and repositories within the namespaces defined by the <archive/branch>
+parameters supplied. If it cannot find the remote branch a merge comes from
+it will just import it as a regular commit. If it can find it, it will mark it
+as a merge whenever possible (see discussion below).
-It will die if it sees branches that have different roots.
+The script expects you to provide the key roots where it can start the import
+from an 'initial import' or 'tag' type of Arch commit. It will follow and
+import new branches within the provided roots.
+It expects to be dealing with one project only. If it sees
+branches that have different roots, it will refuse to run. In that case,
+edit your <archive/branch> parameters to define clearly the scope of the
+import.
+
+`git-archimport` uses `tla` extensively in the background to access the
+Arch repository.
+Make sure you have a recent version of `tla` available in the path. `tla` must
+know about the repositories you pass to `git-archimport`.
+
+For the initial import `git-archimport` expects to find itself in an empty
+directory. To follow the development of a project that uses Arch, rerun
+`git-archimport` with the same parameters as the initial import to perform
+incremental imports.
+
+MERGES
+------
+Patch merge data from Arch is used to mark merges in git as well. git
+does not care much about tracking patches, and only considers a merge when a
+branch incorporates all the commits since the point they forked. The end result
+is that git will have a good idea of how far branches have diverged. So the
+import process does lose some patch-trading metadata.
+
+Fortunately, when you try and merge branches imported from Arch,
+git will find a good merge base, and it has a good chance of identifying
+patches that have been traded out-of-sequence between the branches.
OPTIONS
-------
---option::
- Some option not yet documented.
-<args>...::
- Some argument not yet documented.
+-h::
+ Display usage.
+
+-v::
+ Verbose output.
+
+-T::
+ Many tags. Will create a tag for every commit, reflecting the commit
+ name in the Arch repository.
+
+-f::
+ Use the fast patchset import strategy. This can be significantly
+ faster for large trees, but cannot handle directory renames or
+ permissions changes. The default strategy is slow and safe.
+
+-o::
+ Use this for compatibility with old-style branch names used by
+ earlier versions of git-archimport. Old-style branch names
+ were category--branch, whereas new-style branch names are
+ archive,category--branch--version.
+
+-D <depth>::
+ Follow merge ancestry and attempt to import trees that have been
+ merged from. Specify a depth greater than 1 if patch logs have been
+ pruned.
+
+-a::
+ Attempt to auto-register archives at http://mirrors.sourcecontrol.net
+ This is particularly useful with the -D option.
+
+-t <tmpdir>::
+ Override the default tempdir.
+
+
+<archive/branch>::
+ Archive/branch identifier in a format that `tla log` understands.
Author
Documentation
--------------
-Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
+Documentation by Junio C Hamano, Martin Langhoff and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
---
-Part of the link:git.html[git] suite
+Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite