EPEL-ANNOUNCE Updated git-1.7.4.1 heading to EL-5

[Todd Zullinger]

As many folks have lamented, the current git-1.5.5.6 in EL-5 is quite
a bit stale.  Updating it has been discussed on several occassions,
but was held up until recently due to compatibility issues with the
emacs-git package.  With great thanks to Kevin Fenzi for dusting off
an old emacs habit, that is now resolved and git-1.7.4.1 is heading to
epel-testing.

https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/git-1.7.4.1-1.el5

The update should be a welcome enhancement and not cause current users
any trouble.  Please test and provide feedback via the URL above.

Since 1.5.5.6 there have been a huge amount of bug fixes and
improvements in all areas of git.  Of particular interest are the
release notes from 1.6.0 and 1.7.0:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/RelNotes/1.6.0.txt
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/RelNotes/1.7.0.txt

Links to release notes for each version of git can be found here:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git.html

In git-1.6.0, most git-* commands were moved out of the standard path.
Use of "git $command" is preferred.  It is a very good idea to migrate
scripts to use the dashless form.  However, to retain compatibility
the EL-5 packages keep the git-* commands in /usr/bin.

Other noteworthy changes since 1.5.5.6:

 * "git push" into a branch that is currently checked out (i.e. pointed at by
   HEAD in a repository that is not bare) is refused by default.

   Similarly, "git push $there :$killed" to delete the branch $killed
   in a remote repository $there, when $killed branch is the current
   branch pointed at by its HEAD, will be refused by default.

   Setting the configuration variables receive.denyCurrentBranch and
   receive.denyDeleteCurrent to 'ignore' in the receiving repository
   can be used to override these safety features.

 * "git send-email" does not make deep threads by default when sending a
   patch series with more than two messages.  All messages will be sent
   as a reply to the first message, i.e. cover letter.

   It has been possible already to configure send-email to send "shallow
thread"
   by setting sendemail.chainreplyto configuration variable to false.  The
   only thing this release does is to change the default when you haven't
   configured that variable.

 * "git status" will not be "git commit --dry-run".  This change does
not
   affect you if you run the command without pathspec.

   Nobody sane found the current behaviour of "git status Makefile" useful
   nor meaningful, and it confused users.  "git commit --dry-run" has been
   provided as a way to get the current behaviour of this command since
   1.6.5.

For folks using git over HTTP, git now supports a 'smart' HTTP
protocol which is much more efficient than the older ('dumb') HTTP
protocol.  Refer to the git http-backend documentation for more
details:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-http-backend.html

Thanks to all the folks who have helped test the updated git packages
on EL-5 and reported issues.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were
forced to live on nothing but food and water for days.
    -- W.C. Fields