Command to remove git-bug data from git repository

[wavexx]

At one point I was using an old version of git-bug on a repository that I stopped updating for a while. Today I wanted to use it again, and git-bug complained about the incompatible metadata format.

However I didn't want to upgrade the existing data, I just wanted to re-create the metadata from scratch.

I actually had an hard time finding out all the places/refs that one needed to remove before git-bug was happy to initialize a new repository.

I don't think a "remove from repository" command is necessary, but it would be nice to have an overview and/or list of commands that can be used to remove all refs, dirs and config entries used by git-bug from an existing repository.

To account for all past versions, so far these seem to be the following refs: refs/bugs/ refs/identities/ refs/remotes/*/bugs/, the "git-bug[.*]" entries from .git/config, the .git/git-bug directory.. (did I miss anything?)

[GlancingMind]

The Makefile does contain two targets (clean local bugs and clean local identities) which seem to remove the "not so obvious" directories. Though, they don't cleanup the .git/config and the .git/git-bug directory and a makefile is not particularly user friendly. So yeah, this is more a workaround then a proper solution.

[stefnotch]

I don't think a "remove from repository" command is necessary

Today I was searching for this after the migration, since not everything worked as intended. I'd greatly appreciate having such a command that lets me completely remove git-bug from a repository and then I can safely try again.

[MichaelMure]

Arguably, that could be a dedicated CLI subcommand.

[zinderic]

I see that the make targets are using git commands to clean remote bugs and identities which might be non-trivial to implement without shelling out the commands or printing them for user consideration.

I can give this a shot if I know how that should be handled.

[MichaelMure]

@zinderic sure, it seems like there is a consensus that it makes sense. From what I've seen, it's also a very common question/need, especially for newcomers.

I'm not so sure about the naming though, eject? cleanup? It doesn't fully feels right.

Now for the design:

• in entity_actions.go there is already a Remove(), we can have a RemoveAll()
• bubbling that up in entities/bug/bug_actions.go, the equivalent RemoveAll()
• for identities, they don't rely on the "entity framework", so more code need to be added in entities/identity/identity_actions.go
• to finish, a new command using LoadRepo() instead of LoadBackend() to bypass the cache and directly run the previous functions

Let me know if that make sense.

[stefnotch]

I guess I'd be looking for a command named remove or uninstall. cleanup also sounds fine. eject would confuse me.

Uninstall might be misinterpreted as "globally uninstall git bug" though, so it might not be ideal.

[GlancingMind]

purge and wipe might also fit.

[zinderic]

I opened PR #933 for this. I don't have a strong opinion what should be the name of the sub-command, for me personally cleanup, wipe, purge and remove would work just fine so I picked the first one but I can change it if you would prefer a different one.

[MichaelMure]

I like @GlancingMind's suggestion ... let's do ... wipe? According to https://wikidiff.com/wipe/purge it's slightly more correct while also not carrying the political/religious association.

[zinderic]

OK, wipe it is then, I'll change it. Thank you for the PR review and the feedback, I'll work on it.

[zarelit]

git-annex uses uninit: uninit De-initialize git-annex and clean out repository.

[Kintar]

@zinderic : Are you still working on this? If not, I'll pick it up for you, but I don't want to step on your toes if you're just delayed and busy.

[MichaelMure]

#933 has been merged, we can close this.