Re: *BSD use of branch point tags w/ CVS

[Eric Siegerman]

On Wed, Feb 27, 2002 at 03:59:17PM -0800, Claude Johnson wrote:
> The FreeBSD release docs claim
> that it is impossible to diff against the start of a branch
> w/o a branch point tag in place.
> 
> The process appears to look something like this:
> 
>       1. Create branch point tag
> 
>               cvs rtag <tag>_BP src
> 
>       2. Create the actual branch
> 
>               cvs rtag -b -r<tag>_BP <tag> src
> 
> What _exactly_ is the problem?

It was explained on this list once, many years ago, but the
details now escape me.  It seems it's not always possible for CVS
to determine the correct branch point from just the branch tag.
I don't get that myself.  I'd have thought it was simple -- just
lop the ".0.x" off of the branch tag's "magic" revision number --
but apparently there are cases where that approach doesn't do it.
I've long since forgotten the specific circumstances though;
sorry.

> Is this an old CVS quirk that has been fixed, or does this
> problem still exist?

I've wondered that myself.  But I always create branch point
tags, just in case.  Folk wisdom or voodoo; you be the judge :-)

--

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|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        address@hidden
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