From c8bae7493d2f2910b57f13ded012e86bdcfb0532 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Daniel Baumann Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2024 16:47:53 +0200 Subject: Adding upstream version 1:2.39.2. Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann --- Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt | 703 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 703 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt (limited to 'Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt') diff --git a/Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt b/Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62e482a --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt @@ -0,0 +1,703 @@ +git-filter-branch(1) +==================== + +NAME +---- +git-filter-branch - Rewrite branches + +SYNOPSIS +-------- +[verse] +'git filter-branch' [--setup ] [--subdirectory-filter ] + [--env-filter ] [--tree-filter ] + [--index-filter ] [--parent-filter ] + [--msg-filter ] [--commit-filter ] + [--tag-name-filter ] [--prune-empty] + [--original ] [-d ] [-f | --force] + [--state-branch ] [--] [...] + +WARNING +------- +'git filter-branch' has a plethora of pitfalls that can produce non-obvious +manglings of the intended history rewrite (and can leave you with little +time to investigate such problems since it has such abysmal performance). +These safety and performance issues cannot be backward compatibly fixed and +as such, its use is not recommended. Please use an alternative history +filtering tool such as https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo/[git +filter-repo]. If you still need to use 'git filter-branch', please +carefully read <> (and <>) to learn about the land +mines of filter-branch, and then vigilantly avoid as many of the hazards +listed there as reasonably possible. + +DESCRIPTION +----------- +Lets you rewrite Git revision history by rewriting the branches mentioned +in the , applying custom filters on each revision. +Those filters can modify each tree (e.g. removing a file or running +a perl rewrite on all files) or information about each commit. +Otherwise, all information (including original commit times or merge +information) will be preserved. + +The command will only rewrite the _positive_ refs mentioned in the +command line (e.g. if you pass 'a..b', only 'b' will be rewritten). +If you specify no filters, the commits will be recommitted without any +changes, which would normally have no effect. Nevertheless, this may be +useful in the future for compensating for some Git bugs or such, +therefore such a usage is permitted. + +*NOTE*: This command honors `.git/info/grafts` file and refs in +the `refs/replace/` namespace. +If you have any grafts or replacement refs defined, running this command +will make them permanent. + +*WARNING*! The rewritten history will have different object names for all +the objects and will not converge with the original branch. You will not +be able to easily push and distribute the rewritten branch on top of the +original branch. Please do not use this command if you do not know the +full implications, and avoid using it anyway, if a simple single commit +would suffice to fix your problem. (See the "RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM +REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] for further information about +rewriting published history.) + +Always verify that the rewritten version is correct: The original refs, +if different from the rewritten ones, will be stored in the namespace +'refs/original/'. + +Note that since this operation is very I/O expensive, it might +be a good idea to redirect the temporary directory off-disk with the +`-d` option, e.g. on tmpfs. Reportedly the speedup is very noticeable. + + +Filters +~~~~~~~ + +The filters are applied in the order as listed below. The +argument is always evaluated in the shell context using the 'eval' command +(with the notable exception of the commit filter, for technical reasons). +Prior to that, the `$GIT_COMMIT` environment variable will be set to contain +the id of the commit being rewritten. Also, GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, +GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_NAME, GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL, +and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE are taken from the current commit and exported to +the environment, in order to affect the author and committer identities of +the replacement commit created by linkgit:git-commit-tree[1] after the +filters have run. + +If any evaluation of returns a non-zero exit status, the whole +operation will be aborted. + +A 'map' function is available that takes an "original sha1 id" argument +and outputs a "rewritten sha1 id" if the commit has been already +rewritten, and "original sha1 id" otherwise; the 'map' function can +return several ids on separate lines if your commit filter emitted +multiple commits. + + +OPTIONS +------- + +--setup :: + This is not a real filter executed for each commit but a one + time setup just before the loop. Therefore no commit-specific + variables are defined yet. Functions or variables defined here + can be used or modified in the following filter steps except + the commit filter, for technical reasons. + +--subdirectory-filter :: + Only look at the history which touches the given subdirectory. + The result will contain that directory (and only that) as its + project root. Implies <>. + +--env-filter :: + This filter may be used if you only need to modify the environment + in which the commit will be performed. Specifically, you might + want to rewrite the author/committer name/email/time environment + variables (see linkgit:git-commit-tree[1] for details). + +--tree-filter :: + This is the filter for rewriting the tree and its contents. + The argument is evaluated in shell with the working + directory set to the root of the checked out tree. The new tree + is then used as-is (new files are auto-added, disappeared files + are auto-removed - neither .gitignore files nor any other ignore + rules *HAVE ANY EFFECT*!). + +--index-filter :: + This is the filter for rewriting the index. It is similar to the + tree filter but does not check out the tree, which makes it much + faster. Frequently used with `git rm --cached + --ignore-unmatch ...`, see EXAMPLES below. For hairy + cases, see linkgit:git-update-index[1]. + +--parent-filter :: + This is the filter for rewriting the commit's parent list. + It will receive the parent string on stdin and shall output + the new parent string on stdout. The parent string is in + the format described in linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]: empty for + the initial commit, "-p parent" for a normal commit and + "-p parent1 -p parent2 -p parent3 ..." for a merge commit. + +--msg-filter :: + This is the filter for rewriting the commit messages. + The argument is evaluated in the shell with the original + commit message on standard input; its standard output is + used as the new commit message. + +--commit-filter :: + This is the filter for performing the commit. + If this filter is specified, it will be called instead of the + 'git commit-tree' command, with arguments of the form + " [(-p )...]" and the log message on + stdin. The commit id is expected on stdout. ++ +As a special extension, the commit filter may emit multiple +commit ids; in that case, the rewritten children of the original commit will +have all of them as parents. ++ +You can use the 'map' convenience function in this filter, and other +convenience functions, too. For example, calling 'skip_commit "$@"' +will leave out the current commit (but not its changes! If you want +that, use 'git rebase' instead). ++ +You can also use the `git_commit_non_empty_tree "$@"` instead of +`git commit-tree "$@"` if you don't wish to keep commits with a single parent +and that makes no change to the tree. + +--tag-name-filter :: + This is the filter for rewriting tag names. When passed, + it will be called for every tag ref that points to a rewritten + object (or to a tag object which points to a rewritten object). + The original tag name is passed via standard input, and the new + tag name is expected on standard output. ++ +The original tags are not deleted, but can be overwritten; +use "--tag-name-filter cat" to simply update the tags. In this +case, be very careful and make sure you have the old tags +backed up in case the conversion has run afoul. ++ +Nearly proper rewriting of tag objects is supported. If the tag has +a message attached, a new tag object will be created with the same message, +author, and timestamp. If the tag has a signature attached, the +signature will be stripped. It is by definition impossible to preserve +signatures. The reason this is "nearly" proper, is because ideally if +the tag did not change (points to the same object, has the same name, etc.) +it should retain any signature. That is not the case, signatures will always +be removed, buyer beware. There is also no support for changing the +author or timestamp (or the tag message for that matter). Tags which point +to other tags will be rewritten to point to the underlying commit. + +--prune-empty:: + Some filters will generate empty commits that leave the tree untouched. + This option instructs git-filter-branch to remove such commits if they + have exactly one or zero non-pruned parents; merge commits will + therefore remain intact. This option cannot be used together with + `--commit-filter`, though the same effect can be achieved by using the + provided `git_commit_non_empty_tree` function in a commit filter. + +--original :: + Use this option to set the namespace where the original commits + will be stored. The default value is 'refs/original'. + +-d :: + Use this option to set the path to the temporary directory used for + rewriting. When applying a tree filter, the command needs to + temporarily check out the tree to some directory, which may consume + considerable space in case of large projects. By default it + does this in the `.git-rewrite/` directory but you can override + that choice by this parameter. + +-f:: +--force:: + 'git filter-branch' refuses to start with an existing temporary + directory or when there are already refs starting with + 'refs/original/', unless forced. + +--state-branch :: + This option will cause the mapping from old to new objects to + be loaded from named branch upon startup and saved as a new + commit to that branch upon exit, enabling incremental of large + trees. If '' does not exist it will be created. + +...:: + Arguments for 'git rev-list'. All positive refs included by + these options are rewritten. You may also specify options + such as `--all`, but you must use `--` to separate them from + the 'git filter-branch' options. Implies <>. + + +[[Remap_to_ancestor]] +Remap to ancestor +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +By using linkgit:git-rev-list[1] arguments, e.g., path limiters, you can limit the +set of revisions which get rewritten. However, positive refs on the command +line are distinguished: we don't let them be excluded by such limiters. For +this purpose, they are instead rewritten to point at the nearest ancestor that +was not excluded. + + +EXIT STATUS +----------- + +On success, the exit status is `0`. If the filter can't find any commits to +rewrite, the exit status is `2`. On any other error, the exit status may be +any other non-zero value. + + +EXAMPLES +-------- + +Suppose you want to remove a file (containing confidential information +or copyright violation) from all commits: + +------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm filename' HEAD +------------------------------------------------------- + +However, if the file is absent from the tree of some commit, +a simple `rm filename` will fail for that tree and commit. +Thus you may instead want to use `rm -f filename` as the script. + +Using `--index-filter` with 'git rm' yields a significantly faster +version. Like with using `rm filename`, `git rm --cached filename` +will fail if the file is absent from the tree of a commit. If you +want to "completely forget" a file, it does not matter when it entered +history, so we also add `--ignore-unmatch`: + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch filename' HEAD +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Now, you will get the rewritten history saved in HEAD. + +To rewrite the repository to look as if `foodir/` had been its project +root, and discard all other history: + +------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --subdirectory-filter foodir -- --all +------------------------------------------------------- + +Thus you can, e.g., turn a library subdirectory into a repository of +its own. Note the `--` that separates 'filter-branch' options from +revision options, and the `--all` to rewrite all branches and tags. + +To set a commit (which typically is at the tip of another +history) to be the parent of the current initial commit, in +order to paste the other history behind the current history: + +------------------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --parent-filter 'sed "s/^\$/-p /"' HEAD +------------------------------------------------------------------- + +(if the parent string is empty - which happens when we are dealing with +the initial commit - add graftcommit as a parent). Note that this assumes +history with a single root (that is, no merge without common ancestors +happened). If this is not the case, use: + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --parent-filter \ + 'test $GIT_COMMIT = && echo "-p " || cat' HEAD +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +or even simpler: + +----------------------------------------------- +git replace --graft $commit-id $graft-id +git filter-branch $graft-id..HEAD +----------------------------------------------- + +To remove commits authored by "Darl McBribe" from the history: + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +git filter-branch --commit-filter ' + if [ "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME" = "Darl McBribe" ]; + then + skip_commit "$@"; + else + git commit-tree "$@"; + fi' HEAD +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The function 'skip_commit' is defined as follows: + +-------------------------- +skip_commit() +{ + shift; + while [ -n "$1" ]; + do + shift; + map "$1"; + shift; + done; +} +-------------------------- + +The shift magic first throws away the tree id and then the -p +parameters. Note that this handles merges properly! In case Darl +committed a merge between P1 and P2, it will be propagated properly +and all children of the merge will become merge commits with P1,P2 +as their parents instead of the merge commit. + +*NOTE* the changes introduced by the commits, and which are not reverted +by subsequent commits, will still be in the rewritten branch. If you want +to throw out _changes_ together with the commits, you should use the +interactive mode of 'git rebase'. + +You can rewrite the commit log messages using `--msg-filter`. For +example, 'git svn-id' strings in a repository created by 'git svn' can +be removed this way: + +------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --msg-filter ' + sed -e "/^git-svn-id:/d" +' +------------------------------------------------------- + +If you need to add 'Acked-by' lines to, say, the last 10 commits (none +of which is a merge), use this command: + +-------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --msg-filter ' + cat && + echo "Acked-by: Bugs Bunny " +' HEAD~10..HEAD +-------------------------------------------------------- + +The `--env-filter` option can be used to modify committer and/or author +identity. For example, if you found out that your commits have the wrong +identity due to a misconfigured user.email, you can make a correction, +before publishing the project, like this: + +-------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --env-filter ' + if test "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL" = "root@localhost" + then + GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL=john@example.com + fi + if test "$GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL" = "root@localhost" + then + GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL=john@example.com + fi +' -- --all +-------------------------------------------------------- + +To restrict rewriting to only part of the history, specify a revision +range in addition to the new branch name. The new branch name will +point to the top-most revision that a 'git rev-list' of this range +will print. + +Consider this history: + +------------------ + D--E--F--G--H + / / +A--B-----C +------------------ + +To rewrite only commits D,E,F,G,H, but leave A, B and C alone, use: + +-------------------------------- +git filter-branch ... C..H +-------------------------------- + +To rewrite commits E,F,G,H, use one of these: + +---------------------------------------- +git filter-branch ... C..H --not D +git filter-branch ... D..H --not C +---------------------------------------- + +To move the whole tree into a subdirectory, or remove it from there: + +--------------------------------------------------------------- +git filter-branch --index-filter \ + 'git ls-files -s | sed "s-\t\"*-&newsubdir/-" | + GIT_INDEX_FILE=$GIT_INDEX_FILE.new \ + git update-index --index-info && + mv "$GIT_INDEX_FILE.new" "$GIT_INDEX_FILE"' HEAD +--------------------------------------------------------------- + + + +CHECKLIST FOR SHRINKING A REPOSITORY +------------------------------------ + +git-filter-branch can be used to get rid of a subset of files, +usually with some combination of `--index-filter` and +`--subdirectory-filter`. People expect the resulting repository to +be smaller than the original, but you need a few more steps to +actually make it smaller, because Git tries hard not to lose your +objects until you tell it to. First make sure that: + +* You really removed all variants of a filename, if a blob was moved + over its lifetime. `git log --name-only --follow --all -- filename` + can help you find renames. + +* You really filtered all refs: use `--tag-name-filter cat -- --all` + when calling git-filter-branch. + +Then there are two ways to get a smaller repository. A safer way is +to clone, that keeps your original intact. + +* Clone it with `git clone file:///path/to/repo`. The clone + will not have the removed objects. See linkgit:git-clone[1]. (Note + that cloning with a plain path just hardlinks everything!) + +If you really don't want to clone it, for whatever reasons, check the +following points instead (in this order). This is a very destructive +approach, so *make a backup* or go back to cloning it. You have been +warned. + +* Remove the original refs backed up by git-filter-branch: say `git + for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/original/ | xargs -n 1 git + update-ref -d`. + +* Expire all reflogs with `git reflog expire --expire=now --all`. + +* Garbage collect all unreferenced objects with `git gc --prune=now` + (or if your git-gc is not new enough to support arguments to + `--prune`, use `git repack -ad; git prune` instead). + +[[PERFORMANCE]] +PERFORMANCE +----------- + +The performance of git-filter-branch is glacially slow; its design makes it +impossible for a backward-compatible implementation to ever be fast: + +* In editing files, git-filter-branch by design checks out each and + every commit as it existed in the original repo. If your repo has + `10^5` files and `10^5` commits, but each commit only modifies five + files, then git-filter-branch will make you do `10^10` modifications, + despite only having (at most) `5*10^5` unique blobs. + +* If you try and cheat and try to make git-filter-branch only work on + files modified in a commit, then two things happen + + ** you run into problems with deletions whenever the user is simply + trying to rename files (because attempting to delete files that + don't exist looks like a no-op; it takes some chicanery to remap + deletes across file renames when the renames happen via arbitrary + user-provided shell) + + ** even if you succeed at the map-deletes-for-renames chicanery, you + still technically violate backward compatibility because users + are allowed to filter files in ways that depend upon topology of + commits instead of filtering solely based on file contents or + names (though this has not been observed in the wild). + +* Even if you don't need to edit files but only want to e.g. rename or + remove some and thus can avoid checking out each file (i.e. you can + use --index-filter), you still are passing shell snippets for your + filters. This means that for every commit, you have to have a + prepared git repo where those filters can be run. That's a + significant setup. + +* Further, several additional files are created or updated per commit + by git-filter-branch. Some of these are for supporting the + convenience functions provided by git-filter-branch (such as map()), + while others are for keeping track of internal state (but could have + also been accessed by user filters; one of git-filter-branch's + regression tests does so). This essentially amounts to using the + filesystem as an IPC mechanism between git-filter-branch and the + user-provided filters. Disks tend to be a slow IPC mechanism, and + writing these files also effectively represents a forced + synchronization point between separate processes that we hit with + every commit. + +* The user-provided shell commands will likely involve a pipeline of + commands, resulting in the creation of many processes per commit. + Creating and running another process takes a widely varying amount + of time between operating systems, but on any platform it is very + slow relative to invoking a function. + +* git-filter-branch itself is written in shell, which is kind of slow. + This is the one performance issue that could be backward-compatibly + fixed, but compared to the above problems that are intrinsic to the + design of git-filter-branch, the language of the tool itself is a + relatively minor issue. + + ** Side note: Unfortunately, people tend to fixate on the + written-in-shell aspect and periodically ask if git-filter-branch + could be rewritten in another language to fix the performance + issues. Not only does that ignore the bigger intrinsic problems + with the design, it'd help less than you'd expect: if + git-filter-branch itself were not shell, then the convenience + functions (map(), skip_commit(), etc) and the `--setup` argument + could no longer be executed once at the beginning of the program + but would instead need to be prepended to every user filter (and + thus re-executed with every commit). + +The https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo/[git filter-repo] tool is +an alternative to git-filter-branch which does not suffer from these +performance problems or the safety problems (mentioned below). For those +with existing tooling which relies upon git-filter-branch, 'git +filter-repo' also provides +https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo/blob/master/contrib/filter-repo-demos/filter-lamely[filter-lamely], +a drop-in git-filter-branch replacement (with a few caveats). While +filter-lamely suffers from all the same safety issues as +git-filter-branch, it at least ameliorates the performance issues a +little. + +[[SAFETY]] +SAFETY +------ + +git-filter-branch is riddled with gotchas resulting in various ways to +easily corrupt repos or end up with a mess worse than what you started +with: + +* Someone can have a set of "working and tested filters" which they + document or provide to a coworker, who then runs them on a different + OS where the same commands are not working/tested (some examples in + the git-filter-branch manpage are also affected by this). + BSD vs. GNU userland differences can really bite. If lucky, error + messages are spewed. But just as likely, the commands either don't + do the filtering requested, or silently corrupt by making some + unwanted change. The unwanted change may only affect a few commits, + so it's not necessarily obvious either. (The fact that problems + won't necessarily be obvious means they are likely to go unnoticed + until the rewritten history is in use for quite a while, at which + point it's really hard to justify another flag-day for another + rewrite.) + +* Filenames with spaces are often mishandled by shell snippets since + they cause problems for shell pipelines. Not everyone is familiar + with find -print0, xargs -0, git-ls-files -z, etc. Even people who + are familiar with these may assume such flags are not relevant + because someone else renamed any such files in their repo back + before the person doing the filtering joined the project. And + often, even those familiar with handling arguments with spaces may + not do so just because they aren't in the mindset of thinking about + everything that could possibly go wrong. + +* Non-ascii filenames can be silently removed despite being in a + desired directory. Keeping only wanted paths is often done using + pipelines like `git ls-files | grep -v ^WANTED_DIR/ | xargs git rm`. + ls-files will only quote filenames if needed, so folks may not + notice that one of the files didn't match the regex (at least not + until it's much too late). Yes, someone who knows about + core.quotePath can avoid this (unless they have other special + characters like \t, \n, or "), and people who use ls-files -z with + something other than grep can avoid this, but that doesn't mean they + will. + +* Similarly, when moving files around, one can find that filenames + with non-ascii or special characters end up in a different + directory, one that includes a double quote character. (This is + technically the same issue as above with quoting, but perhaps an + interesting different way that it can and has manifested as a + problem.) + +* It's far too easy to accidentally mix up old and new history. It's + still possible with any tool, but git-filter-branch almost + invites it. If lucky, the only downside is users getting frustrated + that they don't know how to shrink their repo and remove the old + stuff. If unlucky, they merge old and new history and end up with + multiple "copies" of each commit, some of which have unwanted or + sensitive files and others which don't. This comes about in + multiple different ways: + + ** the default to only doing a partial history rewrite ('--all' is not + the default and few examples show it) + + ** the fact that there's no automatic post-run cleanup + + ** the fact that --tag-name-filter (when used to rename tags) doesn't + remove the old tags but just adds new ones with the new name + + ** the fact that little educational information is provided to inform + users of the ramifications of a rewrite and how to avoid mixing old + and new history. For example, this man page discusses how users + need to understand that they need to rebase their changes for all + their branches on top of new history (or delete and reclone), but + that's only one of multiple concerns to consider. See the + "DISCUSSION" section of the git filter-repo manual page for more + details. + +* Annotated tags can be accidentally converted to lightweight tags, + due to either of two issues: + + ** Someone can do a history rewrite, realize they messed up, restore + from the backups in refs/original/, and then redo their + git-filter-branch command. (The backup in refs/original/ is not a + real backup; it dereferences tags first.) + + ** Running git-filter-branch with either --tags or --all in your + . In order to retain annotated tags as + annotated, you must use --tag-name-filter (and must not have + restored from refs/original/ in a previously botched rewrite). + +* Any commit messages that specify an encoding will become corrupted + by the rewrite; git-filter-branch ignores the encoding, takes the + original bytes, and feeds it to commit-tree without telling it the + proper encoding. (This happens whether or not --msg-filter is + used.) + +* Commit messages (even if they are all UTF-8) by default become + corrupted due to not being updated -- any references to other commit + hashes in commit messages will now refer to no-longer-extant + commits. + +* There are no facilities for helping users find what unwanted crud + they should delete, which means they are much more likely to have + incomplete or partial cleanups that sometimes result in confusion + and people wasting time trying to understand. (For example, folks + tend to just look for big files to delete instead of big directories + or extensions, and once they do so, then sometime later folks using + the new repository who are going through history will notice a build + artifact directory that has some files but not others, or a cache of + dependencies (node_modules or similar) which couldn't have ever been + functional since it's missing some files.) + +* If --prune-empty isn't specified, then the filtering process can + create hoards of confusing empty commits + +* If --prune-empty is specified, then intentionally placed empty + commits from before the filtering operation are also pruned instead + of just pruning commits that became empty due to filtering rules. + +* If --prune-empty is specified, sometimes empty commits are missed + and left around anyway (a somewhat rare bug, but it happens...) + +* A minor issue, but users who have a goal to update all names and + emails in a repository may be led to --env-filter which will only + update authors and committers, missing taggers. + +* If the user provides a --tag-name-filter that maps multiple tags to + the same name, no warning or error is provided; git-filter-branch + simply overwrites each tag in some undocumented pre-defined order + resulting in only one tag at the end. (A git-filter-branch + regression test requires this surprising behavior.) + +Also, the poor performance of git-filter-branch often leads to safety +issues: + +* Coming up with the correct shell snippet to do the filtering you + want is sometimes difficult unless you're just doing a trivial + modification such as deleting a couple files. Unfortunately, people + often learn if the snippet is right or wrong by trying it out, but + the rightness or wrongness can vary depending on special + circumstances (spaces in filenames, non-ascii filenames, funny + author names or emails, invalid timezones, presence of grafts or + replace objects, etc.), meaning they may have to wait a long time, + hit an error, then restart. The performance of git-filter-branch is + so bad that this cycle is painful, reducing the time available to + carefully re-check (to say nothing about what it does to the + patience of the person doing the rewrite even if they do technically + have more time available). This problem is extra compounded because + errors from broken filters may not be shown for a long time and/or + get lost in a sea of output. Even worse, broken filters often just + result in silent incorrect rewrites. + +* To top it all off, even when users finally find working commands, + they naturally want to share them. But they may be unaware that + their repo didn't have some special cases that someone else's does. + So, when someone else with a different repository runs the same + commands, they get hit by the problems above. Or, the user just + runs commands that really were vetted for special cases, but they + run it on a different OS where it doesn't work, as noted above. + +GIT +--- +Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite -- cgit v1.2.3