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Re: future of cvs
From: |
Paul Sander |
Subject: |
Re: future of cvs |
Date: |
Mon, 5 Sep 2005 12:58:19 -0700 |
On Sep 5, 2005, at 11:26 AM, address@hidden wrote:
Paul Sander wrote:
Is it possible the repository to be touched carefully for
file/directory renaming purpose? I read somewhere that the human
readable form of the cvs repository is an advantage over subversion.
What will happen if we simply rearrange the repository (the folders
and ,v files there) and checkout again?
You can, but if you do the reorg in-place then you lose the ability
to recover old configurations in the proper shape. If you copy the
RCS files in a new directory structure with the new shape, then you
double the size of your repository and retrain the users. There are
also hidden costs with respect to having the users repopulate their
workspace, debugging problems when they don't, and having your
existing baselines go out of date.
Yes, I understand this.
I figure out that in a small team and relatively mature project it
would not hurt to copy the repository, rearrange and check out new,
locking the old repository for historical purposes.
But what is clear is that there are different methods, with different
pros and cons and one should choose.
What is interesting is that the need to rearrange seems quite pressing
for every serious project, but cvs can not address it and this does
not seem to be in plan. Is this a design problem - cvs builds on top
of the rcs files and they do not support such expansion?
You are correct that nearly all non-trivial projects must at one time
or another suffer some kind of reorganization. There has been talk
about adding such a capability to CVS for many years, but it's a
difficult problem, and certain vocal individuals don't seem to get that
it's a serious design flaw.
FWIW, I believe that the ability to rename files can be built, and
recently I've realized a potential method that could preserve backward
compatibility in the repository. I'm finally able to start researching
the possibilities in earnest now and if anything comes of it I'll
present it here. Don't hold your breath, though, because one thing
leads to another and another, and the result will be very intrusive
into the existing design.
--
Paul Sander | "Lets stick to the new mistakes and get rid of the
old
address@hidden | ones" -- William Brown
Re: future of cvs, address@hidden, 2005/09/05
Re: future of cvs, Alex v. Below, 2005/09/05