Re: [Monotone-devel] ikiwiki and monotone

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Thu, Oct 12, 2006 at 04:40:13PM +1000, Brian May wrote:
> >>>>> "UTF" == UTF  <UTF-8> writes:
> 
>     UTF> Just a thought, can't you exploit mtn attr set/get for that? 
>     UTF> Give a file an attribute birth-date when you add it first
>     UTF> time to the repo?
> 
>     UTF> And taking this thought further, maybe monotone should attach
>     UTF> this attribute, and maybe more than just this one, to a file
>     UTF> automatically when the file is added to the repository.
> 
> I also considered this, however:
> 
> * I read somewhere that attributes are slow.

Not particularly -- probably you are thinking of the comments on
  http://venge.net/monotone/wiki/UnixAttribsAndSymlinks
which have more to do with quadratic behavior from trying to update
hundreds of attrs without any kind of batching interface available.

> * I believe attributes are per file revision - so you would need to
> set the attribute for each revision (correct me if I am wrong).

No, they survive until changed -- the canonical use case is tracking
the unix executable bit.  You mark the file executable, it stays that
way :-).

All that said, I agree that using an attr for this smells all wrong...

-- Nathaniel

-- 
Electrons find their paths in subtle ways.