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A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs)

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  A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs) Jonathan Fine <jfine@pytex.org> - 2011-11-06 15:17 +0000
    Re: A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs) Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> - 2011-11-06 08:42 -0800
      Re: A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs) Jonathan Fine <jfine@pytex.org> - 2011-11-06 18:19 +0000
        Re: A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs) Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> - 2011-11-06 21:28 +0100
          Re: A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs) Jonathan Fine <jfine@pytex.org> - 2011-11-07 20:21 +0000
          Re: A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs) Jonathan Fine <jfine@pytex.org> - 2011-11-07 20:21 +0000
        Re: A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs) Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> - 2011-11-06 12:29 -0800
      Re: A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs) Jonathan Fine <jfine@pytex.org> - 2011-11-06 18:19 +0000

#15377 — A Python script to put CTAN into git (from DVDs)

Hi

This it to let you know that I'm writing (in Python) a script that 
places the content of CTAN into a git repository.
     https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools

I'm working from the TeX Collection DVDs that are published each year by 
the TeX user groups, which contain a snapshot of CTAN (about 100,000 
files occupying 4Gb), which means I have to unzip folders and do a few 
other things.

CTAN is the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network.  CTAN keeps only the 
latest version of each file, but old CTAN snapshots will provide many 
earlier versions.

I'm working on putting old CTAN files into modern version control. 
Martin Scharrer is working in the other direction.  He's putting new 
files added to CTAN into Mercurial.
     http://ctanhg.scharrer-online.de/

My script works already as a proof of concept, but needs more work (and 
documentation) before it becomes useful.  I've requested that follow up 
goes to comp.text.tex.

Longer terms goals are git as
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-addressable_storage
* a resource editing and linking system

If you didn't know, a git tree is much like an immutable JSON object, 
except that it does not have arrays or numbers.

If my project interests you, reply to this message or contact me 
directly (or both).

-- 
Jonathan

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#15378

Jonathan Fine <jfine@pytex.org> writes:

> Hi
> 
> This it to let you know that I'm writing (in Python) a script that
> places the content of CTAN into a git repository.
>      https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools

I hope that you meant "repositories" (plural) here, one per tool,
rather than putting all of CTAN into single Git repository.
 
> I'm working from the TeX Collection DVDs that are published each year
> by the TeX user groups, which contain a snapshot of CTAN (about
> 100,000 files occupying 4Gb), which means I have to unzip folders and
> do a few other things.

There is 'contrib/fast-import/import-zips.py' in git.git repository.
If you are not using it, or its equivalent, it might be worth checking
out.
 
> CTAN is the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network.  CTAN keeps only the
> latest version of each file, but old CTAN snapshots will provide many
> earlier versions.

There was similar effort done in putting CPAN (Comprehensive _Perl_
Archive Network) in Git, hosting repositories on GitHub[1], by the name
of gitPAN, see e.g.:

  "The gitPAN Import is Complete"
  http://perlisalive.com/articles/36
 
[1]: https://github.com/gitpan

> I'm working on putting old CTAN files into modern version
> control. Martin Scharrer is working in the other direction.  He's
> putting new files added to CTAN into Mercurial.
>      http://ctanhg.scharrer-online.de/

Nb. thanks to tools such as git-hg and fast-import / fast-export
we have quite good interoperability and convertability between
Git and Mercurial.

P.S. I'd point to reposurgeon tool, which can be used to do fixups
after import, but it would probably won't work on such large (set of)
repositories.

P.P.S. Can you forward it to comp.text.tex?
-- 
Jakub Narębski

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#15386

On 06/11/11 16:42, Jakub Narebski wrote:
> Jonathan Fine<jfine@pytex.org>  writes:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> This it to let you know that I'm writing (in Python) a script that
>> places the content of CTAN into a git repository.
>>       https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools
>
> I hope that you meant "repositories" (plural) here, one per tool,
> rather than putting all of CTAN into single Git repository.

There are complex dependencies among LaTeX macro packages, and TeX is 
often distributed and installed from a DVD.  So it makes sense here to 
put *all* the content of a DVD into a repository.

Once you've done that, it is then possible and sensible to select 
suitable interesting subsets, such as releases of a particular package. 
Users could even define their own subsets, such as "all resources needed 
to process this file, exactly as it processes on my machine".

In addition, many TeX users have a TeX DVD.  If they import it into a 
git repository (using for example my script) then the update from 2011 
to 2012 would require much less bandwidth.

Finally, I'd rather be working within git that modified copy of the ISO 
when doing the subsetting.  I'm pretty sure that I can manage to pull 
the small repositories from the big git-CTAN repository.

But as I proceed, perhaps I'll change my mind (smile).

>> I'm working from the TeX Collection DVDs that are published each year
>> by the TeX user groups, which contain a snapshot of CTAN (about
>> 100,000 files occupying 4Gb), which means I have to unzip folders and
>> do a few other things.
>
> There is 'contrib/fast-import/import-zips.py' in git.git repository.
> If you are not using it, or its equivalent, it might be worth checking
> out.

Well, I didn't know about that.  I took a look, and it doesn't do what I 
want.  I need to walk the tree (on a mounted ISO) and unpack some (but 
not all) zip files as I come across them.  For details see:
 
https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools/src/tip/ctantools/filetools.py

In addition, I don't want to make a commit.  I just want to make a ref 
at the end of building the tree.  This is because I want the import of a 
TeX DVD to give effectively identical results for all users, and so any 
commit information would be effectively constant.

>> CTAN is the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network.  CTAN keeps only the
>> latest version of each file, but old CTAN snapshots will provide many
>> earlier versions.
>
> There was similar effort done in putting CPAN (Comprehensive _Perl_
> Archive Network) in Git, hosting repositories on GitHub[1], by the name
> of gitPAN, see e.g.:
>
>    "The gitPAN Import is Complete"
>    http://perlisalive.com/articles/36
>
> [1]: https://github.com/gitpan

This is really good to know!!!  Not only has this been done already, for 
similar reasons, but github is hosting it.  Life is easier when there is 
a good example to follow.

>> I'm working on putting old CTAN files into modern version
>> control. Martin Scharrer is working in the other direction.  He's
>> putting new files added to CTAN into Mercurial.
>>       http://ctanhg.scharrer-online.de/
>
> Nb. thanks to tools such as git-hg and fast-import / fast-export
> we have quite good interoperability and convertability between
> Git and Mercurial.
>
> P.S. I'd point to reposurgeon tool, which can be used to do fixups
> after import, but it would probably won't work on such large (set of)
> repositories.

Thank you for the pointer to reposurgeon.  My approach is a bit 
different.  First, get all the files into git, and then 'edit the tree' 
to create new trees.  And then commit worthwhile new trees.

As I recall the first 'commit' to the git repository for the Linux 
kernel was just a tree, with a reference to that tree as a tag.  But no 
commit.

> P.P.S. Can you forward it to comp.text.tex?

Done.

-- 
Jonathan

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#15390

Jonathan Fine <jfine@pytex.org> writes:
> On 06/11/11 16:42, Jakub Narebski wrote:
>> Jonathan Fine<jfine@pytex.org>  writes:
>>
>>> This it to let you know that I'm writing (in Python) a script that
>>> places the content of CTAN into a git repository.
>>>       https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools
>>
>> I hope that you meant "repositories" (plural) here, one per tool,
>> rather than putting all of CTAN into single Git repository.

[moved]
>> There was similar effort done in putting CPAN (Comprehensive _Perl_
>> Archive Network) in Git, hosting repositories on GitHub[1], by the name
>> of gitPAN, see e.g.:
>>
>>    "The gitPAN Import is Complete"
>>    http://perlisalive.com/articles/36
>>
>> [1]: https://github.com/gitpan
[/moved]
 
> There are complex dependencies among LaTeX macro packages, and TeX is
> often distributed and installed from a DVD.  So it makes sense here to
> put *all* the content of a DVD into a repository.

Note that for gitPAN each "distribution" (usually but not always
corresponding to single Perl module) is in separate repository.
The dependencies are handled by CPAN / CPANPLUS / cpanm client
(i.e. during install).
 
Putting all DVD (is it "TeX Live" DVD by the way?) into single
repository would put quite a bit of stress to git; it was created for
software development (although admittedly of large project like Linux
kernel), not 4GB+ trees.

> Once you've done that, it is then possible and sensible to select
> suitable interesting subsets, such as releases of a particular
> package. Users could even define their own subsets, such as "all
> resources needed to process this file, exactly as it processes on my
> machine".

This could be handled using submodules, by having superrepository that
consist solely of references to other repositories by the way of
submodules... plus perhaps some administrativa files (like README for
whole CTAN, or search tool, or DVD install, etc.)

This could be the used to get for example contents of DVD from 2010.


But even though submodules (c.f. Subversion svn:external, Mecurial
forest extension, etc.) are in Git for quite a bit of time, it doesn't
have best user interface.
 
> In addition, many TeX users have a TeX DVD.  If they import it into a
> git repository (using for example my script) then the update from 2011
> to 2012 would require much less bandwidth.

???

> Finally, I'd rather be working within git that modified copy of the
> ISO when doing the subsetting.  I'm pretty sure that I can manage to
> pull the small repositories from the big git-CTAN repository.

No you cannot.  It is all or nothing; there is no support for partial
_clone_ (yet), and it looks like it is a hard problem.

Nb. there is support for partial _checkout_, but this is something
different.

> But as I proceed, perhaps I'll change my mind (smile).
> 
>>> I'm working from the TeX Collection DVDs that are published each year
>>> by the TeX user groups, which contain a snapshot of CTAN (about
>>> 100,000 files occupying 4Gb), which means I have to unzip folders and
>>> do a few other things.
>>
>> There is 'contrib/fast-import/import-zips.py' in git.git repository.
>> If you are not using it, or its equivalent, it might be worth checking
>> out.
> 
> Well, I didn't know about that.  I took a look, and it doesn't do what
> I want.  I need to walk the tree (on a mounted ISO) and unpack some
> (but not all) zip files as I come across them.  For details see:
>  https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools/src/tip/ctantools/filetools.py
> 
> In addition, I don't want to make a commit.  I just want to make a ref
> at the end of building the tree.  This is because I want the import of
> a TeX DVD to give effectively identical results for all users, and so
> any commit information would be effectively constant.

Commit = tree + parent + metadata.

I think you would very much want to have linear sequence of trees,
ordered via DAG of commits.  "Naked" trees are rather bad idea, I think.
 
> As I recall the first 'commit' to the git repository for the Linux
> kernel was just a tree, with a reference to that tree as a tag.  But
> no commit.

That was a bad accident that there is a tag that points directly to a
tree of _initial import_, not something to copy.

-- 
Jakub Narębski

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#15433

On 06/11/11 20:28, Jakub Narebski wrote:

> Note that for gitPAN each "distribution" (usually but not always
> corresponding to single Perl module) is in separate repository.
> The dependencies are handled by CPAN / CPANPLUS / cpanm client
> (i.e. during install).

Thank you for your interest, Jakub, and also for this information.  With 
TeX there's a difficult which Perl, I think, does not have.  With TeX we 
process documents, which may demand specific versions of packages. 
LaTeX users are concerned that move on to a later version will cause 
documents to break.

> Putting all DVD (is it "TeX Live" DVD by the way?) into single
> repository would put quite a bit of stress to git; it was created for
> software development (although admittedly of large project like Linux
> kernel), not 4GB+ trees.

I'm impressed by how well git manages it.  It took about 15 minutes to 
build the 4GB tree, and it was disk speed rather than CPU which was the 
bottleneck.

>> Once you've done that, it is then possible and sensible to select
>> suitable interesting subsets, such as releases of a particular
>> package. Users could even define their own subsets, such as "all
>> resources needed to process this file, exactly as it processes on my
>> machine".
>
> This could be handled using submodules, by having superrepository that
> consist solely of references to other repositories by the way of
> submodules... plus perhaps some administrativa files (like README for
> whole CTAN, or search tool, or DVD install, etc.)
>
> This could be the used to get for example contents of DVD from 2010.

We may be at cross purposes.  My first task is get the DVD tree into 
git, performing necessary transformations such as expanding zip files 
along the way.  Breaking the content into submodules can, I believe, be 
done afterwards.

With DVDs from several years it could take several hours to load 
everything into git.  For myself, I'd like to do that once, more or less 
as a batch process, and then move on to the more interesting topics. 
Getting the DVD contents into git is already a significant piece of work.

Once done, I can them move on to what you're interested in, which is 
organising the material.  And I hope that others in the TeX community 
will get involved with that, because I'm not building this repository 
just for myself.

> But even though submodules (c.f. Subversion svn:external, Mecurial
> forest extension, etc.) are in Git for quite a bit of time, it doesn't
> have best user interface.
>
>> In addition, many TeX users have a TeX DVD.  If they import it into a
>> git repository (using for example my script) then the update from 2011
>> to 2012 would require much less bandwidth.
>
> ???

A quick way to bring your TeX distribution up to date is to do a delta 
with a later distribution, and download the difference.  That's what git 
does, and it does it well.  So I'm keen to convert a TeX DVD into a git 
repository, and then differences can be downloaded.

>> Finally, I'd rather be working within git that modified copy of the
>> ISO when doing the subsetting.  I'm pretty sure that I can manage to
>> pull the small repositories from the big git-CTAN repository.
>
> No you cannot.  It is all or nothing; there is no support for partial
> _clone_ (yet), and it looks like it is a hard problem.
>
> Nb. there is support for partial _checkout_, but this is something
> different.

 From what I know, I'm confident that I can achieve what I want using 
git.  I'm also confident that my approach is not closing off any 
possible approached.  But if I'm wrong you'll be able to say: I told you so.

> Commit = tree + parent + metadata.

Actually, any number of parents, including none.  What metadata do I 
have to provide?  At this time nothing, I think, beyond that provided by 
the name of a reference (to the root of a tree).

> I think you would very much want to have linear sequence of trees,
> ordered via DAG of commits.  "Naked" trees are rather bad idea, I think.
>
>> As I recall the first 'commit' to the git repository for the Linux
>> kernel was just a tree, with a reference to that tree as a tag.  But
>> no commit.
>
> That was a bad accident that there is a tag that points directly to a
> tree of _initial import_, not something to copy.

Because git is a distributed version control system, anyone who wants to 
can create such a directed acyclic graph of commits.  And if it's useful 
I'll gladly add it to my copy of the repository.

best regards


Jonathan

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#15434

On 06/11/11 20:28, Jakub Narebski wrote:

> Note that for gitPAN each "distribution" (usually but not always
> corresponding to single Perl module) is in separate repository.
> The dependencies are handled by CPAN / CPANPLUS / cpanm client
> (i.e. during install).

Thank you for your interest, Jakub, and also for this information.  With 
TeX there's a difficult which Perl, I think, does not have.  With TeX we 
process documents, which may demand specific versions of packages. 
LaTeX users are concerned that move on to a later version will cause 
documents to break.

> Putting all DVD (is it "TeX Live" DVD by the way?) into single
> repository would put quite a bit of stress to git; it was created for
> software development (although admittedly of large project like Linux
> kernel), not 4GB+ trees.

I'm impressed by how well git manages it.  It took about 15 minutes to 
build the 4GB tree, and it was disk speed rather than CPU which was the 
bottleneck.

>> Once you've done that, it is then possible and sensible to select
>> suitable interesting subsets, such as releases of a particular
>> package. Users could even define their own subsets, such as "all
>> resources needed to process this file, exactly as it processes on my
>> machine".
>
> This could be handled using submodules, by having superrepository that
> consist solely of references to other repositories by the way of
> submodules... plus perhaps some administrativa files (like README for
> whole CTAN, or search tool, or DVD install, etc.)
>
> This could be the used to get for example contents of DVD from 2010.

We may be at cross purposes.  My first task is get the DVD tree into 
git, performing necessary transformations such as expanding zip files 
along the way.  Breaking the content into submodules can, I believe, be 
done afterwards.

With DVDs from several years it could take several hours to load 
everything into git.  For myself, I'd like to do that once, more or less 
as a batch process, and then move on to the more interesting topics. 
Getting the DVD contents into git is already a significant piece of work.

Once done, I can them move on to what you're interested in, which is 
organising the material.  And I hope that others in the TeX community 
will get involved with that, because I'm not building this repository 
just for myself.

> But even though submodules (c.f. Subversion svn:external, Mecurial
> forest extension, etc.) are in Git for quite a bit of time, it doesn't
> have best user interface.
>
>> In addition, many TeX users have a TeX DVD.  If they import it into a
>> git repository (using for example my script) then the update from 2011
>> to 2012 would require much less bandwidth.
>
> ???

A quick way to bring your TeX distribution up to date is to do a delta 
with a later distribution, and download the difference.  That's what git 
does, and it does it well.  So I'm keen to convert a TeX DVD into a git 
repository, and then differences can be downloaded.

>> Finally, I'd rather be working within git that modified copy of the
>> ISO when doing the subsetting.  I'm pretty sure that I can manage to
>> pull the small repositories from the big git-CTAN repository.
>
> No you cannot.  It is all or nothing; there is no support for partial
> _clone_ (yet), and it looks like it is a hard problem.
>
> Nb. there is support for partial _checkout_, but this is something
> different.

 From what I know, I'm confident that I can achieve what I want using 
git.  I'm also confident that my approach is not closing off any 
possible approached.  But if I'm wrong you'll be able to say: I told you so.

> Commit = tree + parent + metadata.

Actually, any number of parents, including none.  What metadata do I 
have to provide?  At this time nothing, I think, beyond that provided by 
the name of a reference (to the root of a tree).

> I think you would very much want to have linear sequence of trees,
> ordered via DAG of commits.  "Naked" trees are rather bad idea, I think.
>
>> As I recall the first 'commit' to the git repository for the Linux
>> kernel was just a tree, with a reference to that tree as a tag.  But
>> no commit.
>
> That was a bad accident that there is a tag that points directly to a
> tree of _initial import_, not something to copy.

Because git is a distributed version control system, anyone who wants to 
can create such a directed acyclic graph of commits.  And if it's useful 
I'll gladly add it to my copy of the repository.

best regards


Jonathan

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#15391

The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to comp.lang.python,comp.text.tex as well.

Jonathan Fine <jfine@pytex.org> writes:
> On 06/11/11 16:42, Jakub Narebski wrote:
>> Jonathan Fine<jfine@pytex.org>  writes:
>>
>>> This it to let you know that I'm writing (in Python) a script that
>>> places the content of CTAN into a git repository.
>>>       https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools
>>
>> I hope that you meant "repositories" (plural) here, one per tool,
>> rather than putting all of CTAN into single Git repository.

[moved]
>> There was similar effort done in putting CPAN (Comprehensive _Perl_
>> Archive Network) in Git, hosting repositories on GitHub[1], by the name
>> of gitPAN, see e.g.:
>>
>>    "The gitPAN Import is Complete"
>>    http://perlisalive.com/articles/36
>>
>> [1]: https://github.com/gitpan
[/moved]
 
> There are complex dependencies among LaTeX macro packages, and TeX is
> often distributed and installed from a DVD.  So it makes sense here to
> put *all* the content of a DVD into a repository.

Note that for gitPAN each "distribution" (usually but not always
corresponding to single Perl module) is in separate repository.
The dependencies are handled by CPAN / CPANPLUS / cpanm client
(i.e. during install).
 
Putting all DVD (is it "TeX Live" DVD by the way?) into single
repository would put quite a bit of stress to git; it was created for
software development (although admittedly of large project like Linux
kernel), not 4GB+ trees.

> Once you've done that, it is then possible and sensible to select
> suitable interesting subsets, such as releases of a particular
> package. Users could even define their own subsets, such as "all
> resources needed to process this file, exactly as it processes on my
> machine".

This could be handled using submodules, by having superrepository that
consist solely of references to other repositories by the way of
submodules... plus perhaps some administrativa files (like README for
whole CTAN, or search tool, or DVD install, etc.)

This could be the used to get for example contents of DVD from 2010.


But even though submodules (c.f. Subversion svn:external, Mecurial
forest extension, etc.) are in Git for quite a bit of time, it doesn't
have best user interface.
 
> In addition, many TeX users have a TeX DVD.  If they import it into a
> git repository (using for example my script) then the update from 2011
> to 2012 would require much less bandwidth.

???

> Finally, I'd rather be working within git that modified copy of the
> ISO when doing the subsetting.  I'm pretty sure that I can manage to
> pull the small repositories from the big git-CTAN repository.

No you cannot.  It is all or nothing; there is no support for partial
_clone_ (yet), and it looks like it is a hard problem.

Nb. there is support for partial _checkout_, but this is something
different.

> But as I proceed, perhaps I'll change my mind (smile).
> 
>>> I'm working from the TeX Collection DVDs that are published each year
>>> by the TeX user groups, which contain a snapshot of CTAN (about
>>> 100,000 files occupying 4Gb), which means I have to unzip folders and
>>> do a few other things.
>>
>> There is 'contrib/fast-import/import-zips.py' in git.git repository.
>> If you are not using it, or its equivalent, it might be worth checking
>> out.
> 
> Well, I didn't know about that.  I took a look, and it doesn't do what
> I want.  I need to walk the tree (on a mounted ISO) and unpack some
> (but not all) zip files as I come across them.  For details see:
>  https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools/src/tip/ctantools/filetools.py
> 
> In addition, I don't want to make a commit.  I just want to make a ref
> at the end of building the tree.  This is because I want the import of
> a TeX DVD to give effectively identical results for all users, and so
> any commit information would be effectively constant.

Commit = tree + parent + metadata.

I think you would very much want to have linear sequence of trees,
ordered via DAG of commits.  "Naked" trees are rather bad idea, I think.
 
> As I recall the first 'commit' to the git repository for the Linux
> kernel was just a tree, with a reference to that tree as a tag.  But
> no commit.

That was a bad accident that there is a tag that points directly to a
tree of _initial import_, not something to copy.

-- 
Jakub Narębski

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#15387

On 06/11/11 16:42, Jakub Narebski wrote:
> Jonathan Fine<jfine@pytex.org>  writes:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> This it to let you know that I'm writing (in Python) a script that
>> places the content of CTAN into a git repository.
>>       https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools
>
> I hope that you meant "repositories" (plural) here, one per tool,
> rather than putting all of CTAN into single Git repository.

There are complex dependencies among LaTeX macro packages, and TeX is 
often distributed and installed from a DVD.  So it makes sense here to 
put *all* the content of a DVD into a repository.

Once you've done that, it is then possible and sensible to select 
suitable interesting subsets, such as releases of a particular package. 
Users could even define their own subsets, such as "all resources needed 
to process this file, exactly as it processes on my machine".

In addition, many TeX users have a TeX DVD.  If they import it into a 
git repository (using for example my script) then the update from 2011 
to 2012 would require much less bandwidth.

Finally, I'd rather be working within git that modified copy of the ISO 
when doing the subsetting.  I'm pretty sure that I can manage to pull 
the small repositories from the big git-CTAN repository.

But as I proceed, perhaps I'll change my mind (smile).

>> I'm working from the TeX Collection DVDs that are published each year
>> by the TeX user groups, which contain a snapshot of CTAN (about
>> 100,000 files occupying 4Gb), which means I have to unzip folders and
>> do a few other things.
>
> There is 'contrib/fast-import/import-zips.py' in git.git repository.
> If you are not using it, or its equivalent, it might be worth checking
> out.

Well, I didn't know about that.  I took a look, and it doesn't do what I 
want.  I need to walk the tree (on a mounted ISO) and unpack some (but 
not all) zip files as I come across them.  For details see:
 
https://bitbucket.org/jfine/python-ctantools/src/tip/ctantools/filetools.py

In addition, I don't want to make a commit.  I just want to make a ref 
at the end of building the tree.  This is because I want the import of a 
TeX DVD to give effectively identical results for all users, and so any 
commit information would be effectively constant.

>> CTAN is the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network.  CTAN keeps only the
>> latest version of each file, but old CTAN snapshots will provide many
>> earlier versions.
>
> There was similar effort done in putting CPAN (Comprehensive _Perl_
> Archive Network) in Git, hosting repositories on GitHub[1], by the name
> of gitPAN, see e.g.:
>
>    "The gitPAN Import is Complete"
>    http://perlisalive.com/articles/36
>
> [1]: https://github.com/gitpan

This is really good to know!!!  Not only has this been done already, for 
similar reasons, but github is hosting it.  Life is easier when there is 
a good example to follow.

>> I'm working on putting old CTAN files into modern version
>> control. Martin Scharrer is working in the other direction.  He's
>> putting new files added to CTAN into Mercurial.
>>       http://ctanhg.scharrer-online.de/
>
> Nb. thanks to tools such as git-hg and fast-import / fast-export
> we have quite good interoperability and convertability between
> Git and Mercurial.
>
> P.S. I'd point to reposurgeon tool, which can be used to do fixups
> after import, but it would probably won't work on such large (set of)
> repositories.

Thank you for the pointer to reposurgeon.  My approach is a bit 
different.  First, get all the files into git, and then 'edit the tree' 
to create new trees.  And then commit worthwhile new trees.

As I recall the first 'commit' to the git repository for the Linux 
kernel was just a tree, with a reference to that tree as a tag.  But no 
commit.

> P.P.S. Can you forward it to comp.text.tex?

Done.

-- 
Jonathan

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