kklibo / git_tool

Auto-summarize and preserve a section of git history.

git_tool

Run a sequence of git commands to

• replace a section of branch history with a summary commit
• preserve the summarized history with an archive tag named with the summary commit's hash

Function

The tool accepts

• parent: the branch/hash of the parent of the section to be summarized
• section: the branch/hash of the end (inclusive) of the section to be summarized
• and a commit message for the summary commit

When run on a branch history like

 o--o--o--o  parent
           \
            o--o--o--o  section
                      \
                       o--o--o--o  current_branch

the result will be

            o--o--o--o  archive/<summary commit short hash>
           /
 o--o--o--o  parent
           \
            o (the summary commit)
             \
              o--o--o--o  current_branch

This style of history preservation allows for easy browsing of a main branch without loss of potentially useful detail.

The archive/<hash> tag uses the git short hash (the first 7 characters) to record the hash of its summary commit.

Failure recovery

If a failure of a command is detected, the tool will

• immediately stop making changes to the git repo
• return a log of previous commands that succeeded

This allows manual restoration of the repo state, if any is needed.

Intent

This tool accelerates an experimental repo organization style I'm trying. The main branch will tend to look something like

... ---o---------------------------o--------- ... main
        \                           \
         o--o--o--o archive/<hash>   o--o--o--o archive/<hash>

which allows a quick reduction to a display of the summary commits by viewing the main log alone.

License

MIT No Attribution: LICENSE-MIT-0 or https://opensource.org/license/mit-0/