question: After setting up a repo, should a clone of that depot preserve file metadata?

[tcorman]

I might be misunderstand how this script works: with a few small mods I was able to get it working on Windows, and I've got a test repository with hooks enabled. Metadata files look like they are created correctly. When I clone that repository, however, the mod times on the cloned files are different from the source repository - I'd expect them to be the same. Am I misunderstanding the way the script works or is something not working as expected? Thanks!

[danny0838]

git-store-meta is a script and won't run automatically except that a hook is set. Hooks must follow Git's rule and we currently only have pre-commit and post-checkout hook (see doc). Since there is no post-clone hook, the apply won't run after a clone, and you have to run it manually if you want to keep files' metadata consistent to the recorded ones.

[tcorman]

Per doc, it looks like a post-checkout hook should run after clone:

post-checkout

This hook is invoked when a 'git checkout' is run after having updated the
worktree.  The hook is given three parameters: the ref of the previous HEAD,
the ref of the new HEAD (which may or may not have changed), and a flag
indicating whether the checkout was a branch checkout (changing branches,
flag=1) or a file checkout (retrieving a file from the index, flag=0).
This hook cannot affect the outcome of 'git checkout'.

It is also run after 'git clone', unless the --no-checkout (-n) option is
used. The first parameter given to the hook is the null-ref, the second the
ref of the new HEAD and the flag is always 1. Likewise for 'git worktree add'
unless --no-checkout is used.

[danny0838]

Hooks are not copied during cloning, and thus nothing would happen after repo A, which has git-store-meta scripts and hooks, is cloned into repo B. A template directory need to be specified to generate hooks in repo B, and they would run after cloning.

It's an interesting feature of Git. Sorry for missing that in prior.

[tcorman]

Where is the file metadata stored when you run --store? In .git-store-meta I see:

.git_store_meta f metafile f textfile1.txt f

[danny0838]

By default it's stored in the .git_store_meta file, but you have to specified what fields to store or only the default fields (file name and type) are stored. For more details please read the manual.

[danny0838]

Close stale issue. Response if you still have further question or information.