The fixes-bug field

[esr@thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond)]

Eli Zaretskii asked:

     > Which reminds me: what about the "fixes bug" field of the commit
     > metadata? are they copied into the git repo?  If so, how can I display
     > them in git?

The "fixes bug" field in the Bazaar logs is not copied in to the git logs.
This is because it's not actually part of the Bazaar log text.  It is, one
member (often the only member) of a per-revision property/value list.

The Bazaar fast-export plugin can write these property lists in a
extension of fast-import format, but normally does not because
Git cannot interpret that extension.  Thus, these properties are
normally lost in translation to git.

reposurgeon, on the other hand, *can* read and process these
properties (they're the one Bazaar feature I really like, and I wish
git supported them).  In theory I could salvage these properties and
append a report of them them to the end of the log messages on their
corresponding git commits.

There's a complication, though.  Quoting from the reposurgeon
manual:

    <para>Limitation: bzr suffers from deep confusion over whether its
    unit of work is a repository or a floating branch that might have been
    cloned from a repo or created from scratch, and might or might not be
    destined to be merged to a repo one day. Its exporter only works on
    branches, but its importer creates repos.  Thus, a rebuild operation
    will produce a subdirectory structure that differs from what you
    expect.  Look for your content under the subdirectory 'trunk'.</para>

This reflects the state of play when I wrote the Bazaar support fore
reposurgeon in early 2011. I know how to get a fast-import-compatible
dump of a branch with the Bazaar properties in place, but I don't know
how to get a fast-import dump of an *entire Bazaar repo*, with or
without the properties.

Unless the Bazaar exporter has been up-gunned while I wasn't looking,
this might literally require iterating across a branch list and
stitching dumps together by hand.  While I could do this with
reposurgeon, the operation would be an error-prone pain in the
ass.

Because of this, I had been planning to do the full-bore git
conversion based on the existing git mirror, rather than the
Bazaar repo.  To save these properties I'd have to reverse that
decision. The additional complications could easily cost
me another week of work wrestling the Bazaar exporter into submission.

TL;DR: Possible, but a serious PITA.  If this is just an It Would Be Nice
rather than being key to an established workflow I'd rather not go there.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

The IRS has become morally corrupted by the enormous power which we in
Congress have unwisely entrusted to it. Too often it acts like a
Gestapo preying upon defenseless citizens.
	-- Senator Edward V. Long