how to fix the broken tagging system?

[Ronny Pfannschmidt]

On So, 2008-09-28 at 20:33 +0200, Benoit Boissinot wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 5:29 PM, Ronny Pfannschmidt
> <Ronny.Pfannschmidt at gmx.de> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > the last few weeks the way how tagging works in hg was very frustrating.
> >
> > There are various issues with it being a versioned file instead of
> > proper meta-data.
> >
> > 1. Tags don't propagate with the tagged revision.
> >
> > It's really not fun to push a tag just to see its not there in the
> > remote repository.
> >
> > 2. Tags can change without further notice
> >
> > Its really no fun to pull in changes, and get existing tags changed that
> > way - no pull op should be able to alter tags without asking me first.
> >
> > So it kills a lot of trust.
> > To be sure i have to double check tag-changes,
> > i shouldn't have to do that.
> >
> > 3. simple schemes for trying to transfer tags with their revision just
> > don't work
> >
> > rev+1 cant work, as tags can be added much later (for example the svn
> > converter adds them after converting the complete history)
> >
> > 4. git, bzr, monotone - all do it right, just hg is plain wrong (and
> > thus is a pain)
> >
> > As far as i can tell the only good solution to fix it is a proper system
> > for managing meta-data about revisions.
> 
> Would using a disconnected branch dedicated to tags help ?
No, i belive creating a history for metadata about the history is the
wrong way. 
> I think it would help with 1 and 3.
> How are git or bzr doing for 2 (monotone is very different)?

git/bzr use separate metadata that links names and revisions

monotone just appends extra metadata to the revision

Regards Ronny