[incubation] GitHub, initial contribution, history, and GitHub issues

[Jens von Pilgrim <developer@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

we  are about to create a request for the "initial contribution" for the 
N4JS project. We are already using GitHub for our project, and we intend 
to use GitHub at Eclipse as well, not only for the source code but for 
issues as well. For the issues, I have already created a Bugzilla task 
and requested permission via the technology-pmc mailing list.

I have a couple two questions regarding the initial contribution and 
GitHub in general:

1. Git History
Eclipse Project Handbook (EPH): ""The IP Team is not able to review the 
history of project code being moved to an Eclipse project. [..] If your 
project uses an existing GitHub repository, the Webmaster team will help 
you obscure the the history into a hidden branch."

I understand that it is not possible to preserve the history as it its 
because it cannot be reviewed. But what does "obscure the the history 
into a hidden branch" mean?

2. GitHub Issues
If it is possible to somehow transfer the history, is it possible to 
transform issues as well? I already asked that in the related GitHub 
issue bug (https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=515010). This 
question has two sides:
a) technically: We are currently investigating tools exporting and 
importing GitHub issues. Has anyone already used such a tool? We would 
be interested in a tool that could preserve the IDs of issues, since we 
use these IDs for traceability.
b) legally: Is it OK to copy issues to an Eclipse project? We could 
restrict the copied issues to issues (and comments) posted by team 
members (i.e. committers).

Regards,
Jens