Script/tool to import series of snapshots, each being a new edition, into GIT, populating source tree? [closed]

Question

I've developed code locally and taken a fairly regular snapshot whenever I reach a significant point in development, e.g. a working build.

So I have a long-ish list of about 40 folders, each folder being a snapshot e.g. in ascending date YYYYMMDD order, e.g.:-

1. 20100523
2. 20100614
3. 20100721
4. 20100722
5. 20100809
6. 20100901
7. 20101001
8. 20101003
9. 20101104
10. 20101119
11. 20101203
12. 20101218
13. 20110102

I'm looking for a script to import each of these snapshots into GIT. The end result being that the latest code is the same as the last snapshot, and other editions are accessible and are as numbered.

Some other requirements:

• that the latest edition is not cumulative of the previous snapshots, i.e., files that appeared in older snapshots but which don't appear in later ones (e.g. due to refactoring etc.) should not appear in the latest edition of the code.
• meanwhile, there should be continuity between files that do persist between snapshots. I would like GIT to know that there are previous editions of these files and not treat them as brand new files within each edition.

Some background about my aim:

• I need to formally revision control this work rather than keep local private snapshot copies.
• I plan to release this work as open source, so version controlling would be highly recommended
• I am evaluating some of the current popular version control systems (Subversion and GIT) BUT I definitely need a working solution in GIT as well as subversion. I'm not looking to be persuaded to use one particular tool, I need a solution for each tool I am considering. (I haved posted an answer separately for each tool so separate camps of folks who have expertise in GIT and Subversion will be able to give focused answers on one or the other).

The same but separate question for Subversion: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/33867/script-tool-to-import-series-of-snapshots-each-being-a-new-revision-into-subver

Answer 1

Since Git is a content management system, it won't consider a file as new because you add it again: if it has the same (or almost the same) content, it will link its history with previous version of the same file (or actually detect it has been renamed).

The idea is to:

• create a git repo outside of all your directories.
• go into each one of your directories.
• git --git-dir=/path/to/git/repo/.git add -A in order to add/remove all files from the current directory compared to the external working tree of your Git repo.
  The idea is to use each directory content as the working directory of a git repo which is setup elsewhere, outside of any of those directory.
• git commit -m "a comment"
• git tag -m "a comment" myTag

Answer 2

Simplest case, I can think of...

1. Create a git repo/folder, copy the first snapshot into the repo and name it src or something suitable.

2. Next, Add, Commit the files/folders to repository.

3. Now, remove the folder and copy the next snapshot in it's place. (naming it as you did the last snapshot.

4. Repeat from stage 2.

You can check the git status between each snapshot, this will show up any files it considers missing, so you can mark them as removed from the repository.

Roughly speaking that will do what you need.