[Koha] bulk patron import - specifying borrowernumber?

[jason sherman]

Hi all,

I am in the process of preparing our library for migration to Koha
3.00.04.019.  After examining the patron import starter file from my
test server as well as the issues database table, I thought it made
sense to specify the borrowernumber based on values in our old system
to make moving current borrower checkouts easier.  The problem is that
even though I specify borrowernumbers in the patron import file, Koha
keeps using auto_increment for the value.  I've been fussing around
with various settings in Koha to try to get it to take my values, but
I can't get it it to do so.  If this isn't going to happen without
hacking koha's scripts or db config, I can write my checkouts
migration script to find each user's Koha borrowernumber by checking
their cardnumber, but I thought I would do a sanity check first.

So, my questions are:
Is there a setting that I'm missing or something that I've misconfigured?
Is this a bug in my version of Koha, either by including fields that I
can't use in the patron import starter file, or by not accepting data
that it should?
Or is this just intended behavior that I should expect?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can share,

-- 
Jason Sherman
Systems Librarian
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
405.574.1340