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Re: two questions (and a proposed patch) regarding svn:ignore

From: Stefan Sperling <stsp_at_elego.de>
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:10:24 +0100

On Wed, Feb 03, 2010 at 12:52:25AM +0000, Julian Foad wrote:
> > >
> > > Right now, the no_ignore parameter only disables global ignores,
> > > and svn:ignore ignores are always ignored.
> >
> > No, that's not right. I just tried it with a trunk build. I set
> > 'svn:ignore' to ignore the file named 'F', and then I try an 'svn add
> > --force' that encounters a file named 'F', without and then with
> > '--no-ignores'.
> >
> [...]
> > $ svn add --force a
> >
> > $ svn add --force --no-ignore a
> > A a/F
> > ]]]
>
> I think the rule is (not just for 'svn add', but for all svn commands
> that do this kind of ignoring):
>
> a file is ignored iff
> (it matches the svn:ignore property or the global-ignores setting)

Which svn:ignore property? The one placed at the parent directory
of the path we are adding, right?

> and
> (it is unversioned)
> and
> (it is encountered in recursion, rather than specified explicitly)

Yes, which means we have to be running 'svn add path' where path is
a directory. Else we never recurse.

> and
> (--no-ignores is not specified)

Yes, that's how I understand the current behaviour, too, and is what
I meant to say (but didn't). Thanks for phrasing it more clearly.
 
> > So it looks like your new "no_svn_ignores" parameter is not needed.
>
> Or rather, I think the original change you were considering was
> controlling whether to ignore files that are specified explicitly as
> well as files that are encountered in recursion.

Not just files, but directories also. Let's use 'path' as a collective
term for either.

> That extension could be
> introduced in svn_client_addN(), but as that is a single-target API the
> caller could implement the behaviour instead by choosing whether or not
> to call it.

Good point.

> The svn subcommand, which takes multiple targets, could be extended to
> control this behaviour. However, this behaviour (of not ignoring an
> explicit target) was designed that way on purpose. It's not necessarily
> the perfect UI, but it's fairly sensible and easy to describe. Are you
> sure it is important to change the UI?

The current behaviour may be intended, but if so it was not documented
properly. We need to change either the UI or the documentation.

I find the docstring of the API severly lacking.
It does not explain the no_ignore parameter as well as you did above.
At the very least, we need to update the docstring. As written, it
implies that local_abspath will never be added if it matches any
ignores (global or from the svn:ignore property).

However, I also think that the current behaviour is harder to explain
than the suggested new behaviour. The currently documented (but not
implemented) behaviour is pretty straightforward -- there are no exceptions.
If it is unversioned and matches either the global or svn:ignore lists,
and --no-ignores is not specified, it will not be added. Full stop.

We have users who have read the relevant sections of the book, but still
don't understand why svn is adding files they don't want to be added.
In the case I saw being reported, the user was listing them on the command
line driven by a script or something.

This is because the output of 'svn help add', as well as the book, fail to
properly explain the current behaviour.
They do not mention the special case where a path is listed as an explicit
argument. Like the svn_client_add4() docco, they claim that 'svn add'
would ignore any files which are listed in global ignores or the
svn:ignores property (I've quoted the relevant bits at the start of this
thread).

Personally, I'm in favour of adjusting the code to match the documentation,
keeping an old API around that emulates the current behaviour.
Doing so would keep the feature easy to explain and understand.

Stefan
Received on 2010-02-03 10:11:14 CET

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