Re: recursive checkout in existing directory

[Larry Jones]

Steve Sapovits writes:
> 
> -  If I import a new directory, all the way down recursively,
>     ignoring what I need, then if I checkout that new directory
>     in the existing tree, it replaces the old directory with only
>     the files I imported.

No.  CVS *never* removes a file that it doesn't own.  What should happen
in that case is that CVS should checkout the files into the existing
directory tree, complaining about any existing file with the same name
as one it is trying to checkout (and skipping the checkout for that
file).  In reality, CVS doesn't work very well in this case (and exactly
what it does is almost certainly different depending on whether you're
using client/server mode or not).  It has a tendency to refuse to
recurse into existing subdirectories at all, and you may get additional
errors.  But it will never remove or replace an existing directory or
file.

> -  If I import a subdirectory first, then check that out, a CVS
>     directory is created at the top, thereby preventing me from
>     recursively checking out anything new after import.  For example,
>     if I import foo/a/b, then check it out, then import the rest
>     of foo/a, which includes subdirectories foo/a/c, foo/a/d, etc.,
>     then the previous checkout of foo/a/b has created a CVS presence
>     that stops any of the subdirectories from being checked out
>     recursively.

No, you can still checkout additional subdirectories.  You can even
checkout completely unrelated subdirectories from a completely different
repository, if you want!  The only thing you can't do is have files from
different repository directories in the same working directory.  That
said, the "right" thing to do in this particular case is to use "update
-d" in the top-level working directory to update it with the new
subdirectories.

-Larry Jones

Well of course the zipper's going to get stuck if everyone
stands around WATCHING me! -- Calvin