A branch from a sub-directory?

[Ian Clatworthy]

Gioele wrote:
> Marius Kruger wrote:
>>> Is there a way to create a branch from that directory without bringing in
>>> the complete history of the previous branch but only the history of files
>>> in that subdirectory?

> Maybe this [1] suggestion is still valid (with tailor as filter):
>   bzr fast-export > dump.txt
>   filter dump.txt
>   bzr fast-import < dump.txt
> [1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar/2008q2/041664.html

That ought to work (though fast-import takes a filename or '-' to
mean 'read from stdin').

Perhaps I should make this use case easier by adding an option to
fast-import that takes a directory name, e.g. something like:

  bzr fast-export > dump.txt
  bzr init-repo ~/new-proj
  cd ~/new-proj
  bzr fast-import --only mydir dump.txt
  cd -
  bzr rm mydir
  bzr commit -m "removed mydir as now a separate project"

If the idea is useful, I'd like some feedback on the best option
name. Would it be better to only support one dir, or make --only
be a list option, or make --only take a file containing the paths
of interest? (My leaning is towards a list option and items can
be plain files or symlinks as well, not just dirs.)

What do you think?

Ian C.