Question

I am doing a refactoring of my C++ project containing many source files.
The current refactoring step includes joining two files (say, x.cpp and y.cpp) into a bigger one (say, xy.cpp) with some code being thrown out, and some more code added to it.

I would like to tell my version control system (Perforce, in my case) that the resulting file is based on two previous files, so in future, when i look at the revision history of xy.cpp, i also see all the changes ever done to x.cpp and y.cpp.

Perforce supports renaming files, so if y.cpp didn’t exist i would know exactly what to do. Perforce also supports merging, so if i had 2 different versions of xy.cpp it could create one version from it. From this, i figure out that joining two different files is possible (not sure about it); however, i searched through some documentation on Perforce and other source control systems and didn’t find anything useful.

Is what i am trying to do possible at all?
Does it have a conventional name (searching the documentation on “merging” or “joining” was unsuccessful)?

Answer 1

I don’t think it can be done in a classic VCS.
Those versioning systems come in two flavors (slide 50+ of Getting git by Scott Chacon):

• delta-based history: you take one file, and record its delta. In this case, the unit being the file, you cannot associate its history with another file.

• DAG-based history: you take one content and record its patches. In this case, the file itself can vary (it can be renamed/moved at will), and it can be the result of two other contents (so it is close of what you want)… but still within the history of one file (the contents coming from different branches of its DAG).