Re: [Monotone-devel] [RFC] M.T. phone home

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Fri, Jun 09, 2006 at 02:19:43AM +0100, Nuno Lucas wrote:
> On 6/8/06, Nathaniel Smith <address@hidden> wrote:
> >I've been thinking some more about a feature that might be
> >controversial, so want to consult with the community before going
> >forward.  There are some old and relatively incoherent notes here:
> >  http://venge.net/monotone/wiki/CarrotAndStick
> 
> One thing that I believe is still missing (haven't checked the last
> changelogs) is something like a "mtn db optimize", which could run
> VACUUM and ANALYSE on the database as a minimum, and maybe some
> optimization of the history (like optimize for the most checked out
> branches or whatever other optimizations thingies).
> 
> My idea is that this command is a good place to implement that "phone
> home" behaviour, and I don't think it should EVER be automatic (unless
> with some obscure config option that only devels will know about).

So you think that there should not even be a "I would like you to send
my data automatically" button available for people to press?  (It's a
reasonable position, just making sure I understand what you're
saying.)

> Without thinking too hard on it, I would implement that "mtn db
> optimize" command and add a "--phone-home" sub-comand.
> If the "--phone-home" option is not given, then a message could be
> shown. Something like this (just to get an idea):

Hrm, there is a minor problem with this approach, which is that
needing an "optimize" command at all is a bug; a design goal is that
we would be fast without requiring users bother with such things.
(Compare how annoying it is to have to "defragment" on windows, while
unix filesystems are generally smart enough to make it simply
unnecessary.)

-- Nathaniel

-- 
Details are all that matters; God dwells there, and you never get to
see Him if you don't struggle to get them right. -- Stephen Jay Gould