Re: future of cvs

[Mark D. Baushke]

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address@hidden <address@hidden> writes:

> Mark D. Baushke wrote:
> > address@hidden <address@hidden> writes:
> > 
> >> we are using cvs for already 5 years in a 3500 files/500 folders
> >> project (php) and time comes for rearranging file structure a bit.
> > 
> > Yup, that time comes to most projects eventually.
> 
> I wonder how other projects using cvs solve this?

In simple cases, with minimal directory hierarchy modifications, users
will 'cvs tag' as the last versions before restructuring and then do
massive numbers of 'cvs rm -f filename' operations as well as many
'cvs add filename' of copies of the filename that have been placed in
other parts of the checked out repository hierarchy.

In more extreme restructuing cases with a lot of directory hierarchy
modifications, I have seen where the current repository is cloned.

One of the two is then restructured and the other is locked down to
allow read-only checkouts on all branches so that historical releases
may be recreated.

Users interested in doing new development need to checkout fresh trees
and abandon any of the pre-restructuring trees.

> > If you are just worried about renaming files and directories, you
> > may find DCVS http://fdd.com/software/dcvs/ by Kaz Kylheku
> > <address@hidden> to be a useful extension to CVS (Note: I
> > have not actually used DCVS myself.)
> 
> Hm... this does not seem stable enough for mission critical work.

You need to the be one to assess the risk you are willing to take in
your projects.

> > Hmmm... I am not aware of anything particular on the roadmap for
> > supporting file structure reorganzation, but if you have suggestions or
> > code to contribute, we can discuss it on the address@hidden mailing
> > list (or address@hidden if you have patches to be considered).
> 
> We are php people. I am afraid we can't contribute in C.
> 
> Is it possible the repository to be touched carefully for file/directory 
> renaming purpose?

Yes, but unless you keep a copy of the original structure around
somewhere, you would not be able to reconstruct historical releases of
your software.

> I read somewhere that the human readable form of the cvs repository is
> an advantage over subversion.

True. It may also said to be an advantage over some other SCM systems
such as Clearcase.

> What will happen if we simply rearrange the repository (the folders
> and ,v files there) and checkout again?

The newly checked out tree will reflect the new strucutre and you will
have lost the ability to checkout the old structure unless you keep an
archive copy of your existing repository.

        -- Mark
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