Re: "cvs move" command

[Kaz Kylheku]

"Matt J. Gumbley" <mgumbley@enigmadata.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:<mailman.259.1042548501.21513.bug-cvs@gnu.org>... 
> cvs move would be very popular. Perhaps it shouldn't remove all tags?

Yes it would! That is why it has been eagerly discussed for more than
ten years. If you look hard enough, you can find info-cvs mailing list
archives from the early 90's. For example, take a look at this 1992
posting:

http://mssls7.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/sw/help/cvs/cvs-mail/9208/0106.html

A fellow by the name of David D. ``Zoo'' Kuhn presented some ideas in
1994 that resemble Meta-CVS. Here is a link to the November 7, 1994
message archived at geocrawler:

http://www.geocrawler.com/mail/msg.php3?msg_id=2110252

Here are quotes:

``The mapping between the repository filename and the name the user
sees it
  as is handled in the PDDB.  For example, I might create a file
"foobar".
  A unique name is generated (say "AAA123" and the information is
created
  in the repository using that new name.  The PDDB maps "foobar" into
  AAA123.  Additional information about the file (owner,
permissions,etc)
  are also stored in the PDDB.''

Aha!

``Renaming a file becomes quite simple if we don`t move it to another
  directory.  The filename mapping needs to change, but the file
contents
  doesn`t change at all.  Renaming a directory uses the exact same
  principles (and mechanism).''

Aha II!

``Moving a file to another directory becomes a bit of a challenge,
since we
  now have a mapping that spans a single directory.  So some means of
  linking these PDDB`s must be developed.  I could actually envision a
  repository structure where EVERY file is stored in the same flat
  directory.''

Son of Aha! :)

Note that I found this information sometime I put the first release of
Meta-CVS out last January. I started digging to see if anyone ever
proposed something similar for CVS, just to see how much time had
elapsed since that suggestion. A little over seven years, not bad. ;)