Re: Can't cvs unedit

[Noel L Yap]

>To reduce the complexity of the versioning process for the
>non-developers on our project we have opted to use edit -c for exclusive
>editing. We ran into problems when someone deleted the files on their
>local disk while they still had files that they had cvs edited. When cvs
>-r checkout was run the cvs edit -c call on those files failed because
>cvs won't allow multiple editors (even though if it is the same editor)
>- perfectly reasonable. Of course there was no way for them to cvs
>unedit the file either. In the end we had to change the .cvsrc file so
>that the -c option would not be passed to cvs edit, then cvs edit, cvs
>unedit and finally restore the .cvsrc file. Is there a better/proper way
>to do this?

I'm assuming you're using my patch ("cvs edit -c" doesn't exist in standart
CVS).  If not, the following may not apply.

Yes, "cvs edit -f" was supplied in the same patch as "cvs edit -c".  Also, if
you want, you can install another patch that'll add "cvs unedit -e editor"
that'll allow anyone to remove explicitly an existing edit (of course, you would
probably want to turn on notification when using this -- you'd probably want to
turn on notification anyway).

>In fact, I'm surprised this work around worked at all, I would have
>though that cvs would have thought that the cvs edit was the second edit
>on that file and the cvs unedit would just undo that edit leaving the
>original edit in place. I guess we were lucky.

This isn't luck.  This was by design.  CVS should never ever prevent multiple
edits (ie concurrent development).  The "cvs edit -c" patch gives only advisory
locks on the files.  It's up to the users to follow the advice.

I find it good practice for a team to use "cvs edit -c" to facilitate
communication.  If someone is editing a file, the would-be editor should
communicate with the editor to see if their edits will conflict (who knows,
maybe the would-be editor just wants to put temporary debug code in).  If it's
deemed safe, the new edit can proceed with "cvs edit -f".

Noel




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