Merging latest improvements including a revamped Repo interface before more changes are to be done on the way diffing is handled

Merge branch 'improvements'

* improvements:
  Improved archive function by allowing it to directly write to an output stream - previously it would cache everything to memory and try to provide zipping functionality itself
  repo: made init and clone methods less specific, previously they wanted to do it 'barely' only. New method names closely follow the default git command names
  repo.commit_delta_base: removed
  Object can now create objects of the proper type in case one attempts to create an object directly - this feature is used in several places now, allowing for additional type-checking
  repo: removed commits_between but added a note about how this can be achieved using the iter_commits method; reorganized methods within the type as a start for more interface changes
  Added Commit.iter_parents to iterate all parents
  repo: removed a few methods because of redundancy or because it will be obsolete once the interface overhaul is finished. This commit is just intermediate
  All times are not stored as time_struct, but as simple int to consume less memory

Author: Byron

CHANGES

@@ -20,6 +20,14 @@ General
   may change without prior notice.
 * Renamed all find_all methods to list_items - this method is part of the Iterable interface
   that also provides a more efficients and more responsive iter_items method
+* All dates, like authored_date and committer_date, are stored as seconds since epoc
+  to consume less memory - they can be converted using time.gmtime in a more suitable 
+  presentation format if needed.
+* Named method parameters changed on a wide scale to unify their use. Now git specific 
+  terms are used everywhere, such as "Reference" ( ref ) and "Revision" ( rev ).
+  Prevously multiple terms where used making it harder to know which type was allowed
+  or not.
+  
 
 Item Iteration
 --------------
@@ -41,7 +49,23 @@ Repo
   of the active branch.
 * tree method now requires a Ref instance as input and defaults to the active_branche
   instead of master
-* Removed 'log' method as it as effectively the same as the 'commits' method
+* Removed the following methods:
+  - 'log' method as it as effectively the same as the 'commits' method
+  - 'commits_since' as it is just a flag given to rev-list in Commit.iter_items
+  - 'commit_count' as it was just a redirection to the respective commit method
+  - 'commits_between', replaced by a note on the iter_commits method as it can 
+     achieve the same thing
+  - 'commit_delta_from' as it was a very special case by comparing two different
+     repositories which are likely to have completly different commits. For
+     related repositories, i.e. clones, git-rev-list would be sufficient to find 
+     commits that would need to be transferred for example.
+  - 'create' method which equals the 'init' method's functionality
+* Renamed the following methods:
+  - commits to iter_commits to improve the performance, adjusted signature
+  - init_bare to init, implying less about the options to be used
+  - fork_bare to clone, as it was to represent general clone functionality, but implied
+    a bare clone to be more versatile
+  - archive_tar_gz and archive_tar and replaced by archive method with different signature
 * 'commits' method has no max-count of returned commits anymore, it now behaves 
  like git-rev-list
 

lib/git/cmd.py

@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@
 GIT_PYTHON_TRACE = os.environ.get("GIT_PYTHON_TRACE", False)
 
 execute_kwargs = ('istream', 'with_keep_cwd', 'with_extended_output',
-				  'with_exceptions', 'with_raw_output', 'as_process')
+				  'with_exceptions', 'with_raw_output', 'as_process', 
+				  'output_stream' )
 
 extra = {}
 if sys.platform == 'win32':
@@ -102,7 +103,8 @@ def execute(self, command,
 				with_extended_output=False,
 				with_exceptions=True,
 				with_raw_output=False,
-				as_process=False
+				as_process=False, 
+				output_stream=None
 				):
 		"""
 		Handles executing the command on the shell and consumes and returns
@@ -130,16 +132,20 @@ def execute(self, command,
 		``with_raw_output``
 			Whether to avoid stripping off trailing whitespace.
 			
-		 ``as_process``
-		 	Whether to return the created process instance directly from which 
-		 	streams can be read on demand. This will render with_extended_output, 
-		 	with_exceptions and with_raw_output ineffective - the caller will have 
-		 	to deal with the details himself.
-		 	It is important to note that the process will be placed into an AutoInterrupt
-		 	wrapper that will interrupt the process once it goes out of scope. If you 
-		 	use the command in iterators, you should pass the whole process instance 
-		 	instead of a single stream.
-
+		``as_process``
+			Whether to return the created process instance directly from which 
+			streams can be read on demand. This will render with_extended_output, 
+			with_exceptions and with_raw_output ineffective - the caller will have 
+			to deal with the details himself.
+			It is important to note that the process will be placed into an AutoInterrupt
+			wrapper that will interrupt the process once it goes out of scope. If you 
+			use the command in iterators, you should pass the whole process instance 
+			instead of a single stream.
+		``output_stream``
+			If set to a file-like object, data produced by the git command will be 
+			output to the given stream directly. 
+			Otherwise a new file will be opened.
+		
 		Returns::
 		
 		 str(output)								  # extended_output = False (Default)
@@ -160,13 +166,17 @@ def execute(self, command,
 		  cwd = os.getcwd()
 		else:
 		  cwd=self.git_dir
+		  
+		ostream = subprocess.PIPE
+		if output_stream is not None:
+			ostream = output_stream
 
 		# Start the process
 		proc = subprocess.Popen(command,
 								cwd=cwd,
 								stdin=istream,
 								stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
-								stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+								stdout=ostream,
 								**extra
 								)
 
@@ -223,6 +233,21 @@ def transform_kwargs(self, **kwargs):
 					args.append("--%s=%s" % (dashify(k), v))
 		return args
 
+	@classmethod
+	def __unpack_args(cls, arg_list):
+		if not isinstance(arg_list, (list,tuple)):
+			return [ str(arg_list) ]
+			
+		outlist = list()
+		for arg in arg_list:
+			if isinstance(arg_list, (list, tuple)):
+				outlist.extend(cls.__unpack_args( arg ))
+			# END recursion 
+			else:
+				outlist.append(str(arg))
+		# END for each arg
+		return outlist
+
 	def _call_process(self, method, *args, **kwargs):
 		"""
 		Run the given git command with the specified arguments and return
@@ -258,7 +283,8 @@ def _call_process(self, method, *args, **kwargs):
 
 		# Prepare the argument list
 		opt_args = self.transform_kwargs(**kwargs)
-		ext_args = map(str, args)
+		
+		ext_args = self.__unpack_args(args)
 		args = opt_args + ext_args
 
 		call = ["git", dashify(method)]

lib/git/objects/base.py

@@ -5,17 +5,32 @@
 # the BSD License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
 import os
 from git.utils import LazyMixin
+import utils
 
 _assertion_msg_format = "Created object %r whose python type %r disagrees with the acutal git object type %r"
 
 class Object(LazyMixin):
 	"""
 	Implements an Object which may be Blobs, Trees, Commits and Tags
+	
+	This Object also serves as a constructor for instances of the correct type::
+	
+		inst = Object(repo,id)
 	"""
 	TYPES = ("blob", "tree", "commit", "tag")
 	__slots__ = ("repo", "id", "size", "data" )
 	type = None			# to be set by subclass
 
+	def __new__(cls, repo, id, *args, **kwargs):
+		if cls is Object:
+			hexsha, typename, size = repo.git.get_object_header(id)
+			obj_type = utils.get_object_type_by_name(typename)
+			inst = super(Object,cls).__new__(obj_type, repo, hexsha, *args, **kwargs)
+			inst.size = size
+			return inst
+		else:
+			return super(Object,cls).__new__(cls, repo, id, *args, **kwargs)
+	
 	def __init__(self, repo, id):
 		"""
 		Initialize an object by identifying it by its id. All keyword arguments