svn ci/up --xml-file

Hey All,

We were talking the other day about patch files that supported properties,
and it was suggested that our xml-file format could be used to accomplish
this.

I was thinking about this, and had a couple of thoughts/questions.

For generating patch files, we could use 'svn ci --xml-file patch.xml'. This
would generate an xml output file as normal, except that it would use:
1) gnu diff for textdeltas (if text, svndiff if binary).
2) textdeltas would be inline instead of post-fix (for easier reading).

I think the easiest way to do this would be to add an 'apply_patch' file to
our editor vtables, and a 'type="gnu/svn"' attribute to the text-delta
tag.

The reason for this is that it would be extremely convoluted to generate a
diff from our existing text-deltas.

svn up could then read one of these files, and patch the wc accordingly. The
required change would be to all a revision of SVN_INVALID_REVNUM, indicating
that update should not modify and revision numbers.

In addition, a straight patch -p0 < patch.xml should work as well (obviously,
only changing text files not props or binary files).

What do people think of this idea?

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kevin Pilch-Bisson                    http://www.pilch-bisson.net
     "Historically speaking, the presences of wheels in Unix
     has never precluded their reinvention." - Larry Wall
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~