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RE: .svn directories

From: Kumaran Santhanam <kumaran_at_tigris.org>
Date: 2003-08-27 04:14:37 CEST

> While you're at it, consider a command to convert between the
> two methods of storing metadata. For example, say I have a
> working copy with the metadata stored in my home directory.
> Then, suddenly I want to share it... I can run the command,
> which will gather the metadata and distribute it into the
> directory structure. The reverse would require me to specify
> the destination location of the metadata.
>
> These cool power-user features are nice, as long as can keep a
> simple core for the low-skilled users who need to be trained
> every step of the way. As acceptance of subversion grows, the
> percentage of power-users in the user-base will decrease.

This is an excellent idea which could actually simplify things
quite a bit! It might address the confusion that some others
were talking about with having different default behaviors.

Consider the following future scenario, where the default
behavior is set for non-power users (I'll explain why below):

1) SVN uses separated meta data directories by default. As such,
there are no .svn/ directories in the working copy.

2) There would be no config file option, so this is always the
checkout behavior. Right now, I have "pristine-working-copy=yes"
in the config file.

3) However, SVN knows what to do with .svn/ directories (i.e.
backward compatible with the current approach)

4) A command could be issued to go back and forth between the two
approaches:

svn wc --embed-admin-dirs /path/to/working/copy
svn wc --separate-admin-dirs /path/to/working/copy

5) An extra option is provided for power users during checkout

svn checkout --embed-admin-dirs URL PATH

My argument for a default separated meta-data approach for
non-power users is that it reduces the chance for user error with
respect to the .svn/ directories. In other words, these average
users are not going to be doing the complex things described
previously in this thread. They will often have one single
working copy for each project, and very likely will be only
working on one project on one machine at a time.

However, by providing this clean interface to the power user, all
of the aforementioned capabilities are possible. I really like
this idea, and will implement it in phase 2 (when I do the 'wc'
series of commands).

Any thoughts?

Kumaran

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Received on Wed Aug 27 04:15:29 2003

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