Is there a way to fix work item references in Git commit messages?

[ackh]

I'm currently preparing a migration and thus want to understand the limitations of the azure-devops-migration-tools.

One question that came up is whether references to work items in Git commit messages are corrected by the tool. Let me explain:

Git commits can reference work items by adding the work item identifier with a prepended # sign to the Git commit message. So, let's say I write the following message for a Git commit that modifies a file:

Add further details to the readme file

Fixes bug #814

814 is the identifier of a Bug work item that already exists when the Git commit gets created. In the Azure DevOps web interface, the details page of the Git commit created as described above looks as follows:

As visible in the screenshot, two things happen:

• The web interface renders my Git commit message so that the identifier, title and state of the referenced bug work item is visible
• A link to the Git commit was automatically added to the bug work item referenced by the Git commit as shown by the screenshot below

A test run using azure-devops-migration-tools showed that the work item link to the Git commit is automatically fixed so that it points to the migrated work item, i.e. to the work item with the new identifier instead of the original one of the source system.

However, in order to correct the reference to the bug work item in the Git commit message, that particular Git commit would have to be reworded. This would alter the history of the Git repository and I have not observed that this is happening. In addition, I haven't found any code within azure-devops-migration-tools that indicates that this is supposed to happen.

I'm I just using it wrong or does the tool simply not patch the references in Git commit messages?

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I know that this question has been asked before in #1616 and #1092 but I'm confused by those discussions because the first one states that Git commits are not modified while the second one seems to imply that the Git commits do get changed. I might interpret this incorrectly but what is actually true here?

[MrHinsh]

No changes to git are made.

No, the comment and description content can't be updated without an additional pass that would update the target past any source revisions.

[ackh]

Alright, thanks for the quick and definitive answer and thanks for building that tool!

[MrHinsh]

Since you had ambiguity before I felt that explicit was better :)