Re: WINCVS and MSVC problem

[Stephan Feder]

Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> 
> In article <address@hidden>, Stephan Feder wrote:
> >Larry,
> >
> >I know how the cvs client handles line endings but nonetheless it is a
> >problem for quite a few users. What about a flag for the client that
> >prevents it from doing _any_ line ending conversions (as I understand it
> >the server transfers the files as they are)?
> 
> You misunderstand. The problem is that some idiots took DOS text files
> sitting on a Linux client, and imported or added them to CVS.

That means everyone with a working directory shared between windows and
unix boxes (not shared between multiple users!) is an idiot? Do you
really think having two working directories with the same (apart from
line endings) checked out revisions is clever? And if you (have to)
switch between systems while editing a file you have to check in system
1's file and update system 2's file. And you have to back it up. And
just maybe the proper line ending for editing is not the proper line
ending for processing.

> This is not a CVS problem at all.  It's a problem between the keyboard
> and chair.
> 
> If you have a bunch of text files, and they are correctly represented
> text files for the operating system you are using, you can put them
> into CVS. Someone can check them out on a different operating system,
> and CVS will convert them to proper text files for that operating system.
> 
> When you add or import files, you can specify that they are to be treated
> as binary. Binary files don't undergo line ending conversions.

Binary files also cannot be merged and do not undergo keyword
substitution.
 
> Whether a file is text or binary is an essential, inherent property
> of that file. It's not something you want to be turning on and off at
> transport time.

Well, you can easily switch between binary and the different text
"modes" (option -k) but in my eyes there are 3 properties:

1. should the file be merged,
2. should keywords be substituted,
3. should line endings be converted.

I would like to have 1 and 2 without 3. Is this idea so ridiculous?

> One solution in your case is to check out the erroneous files, fix their
> broken line endings, and commit the changes. Changing the client behavior
> on checkout is the wrong solution to the wrong problem.

One more note about sharing working directories between systems: If you
checkout under Windows you cannot work under Unix simple because the \r
in the CVS directories' files are interpreted as being part of the
Repository/Root. I am a little bit afraid of being told the obvious
reason for that.

Regards
        Stephan