>>> That control character is a ^q^0 in emacs, see git fast-import --help for more info.
>>> I'll be trying an import *without* that change, to see what happens.
->>>> (5 minutes later)
->>>> Removing it makes it behave sanely. heh. Learned something new :). So ignore the comment just above, except for the --force part. You have to do that because fast-import assumes a clean uninitialized space.
+>>>> I still have to do the above to preserve the changes done by this script... (removed previous note).
+