Re: Space wasting

Ben Gollmer wrote:
> Large monolithic binary files protect against corruption?
>
> *scratches head*

making the .svn folder a single (possibly compressed) file would help
ensure integrity of its contents, for the reasons already given.

> How could modification of the .svn dir corrupt the repository, anyway? It might affect any patches
> you generate with 'svn diff', but if you're super concerned about that, just diff against a URL,
> bypassing the text-base completely.

1. you're assuming the only files in the .svn directory are the pristine
copies, i think.

2. the point is, the svn commands use the contents of this directory as
well as the working copy when determining what to do. if the contents of
this directory were modified in a non-deterministic fashion, the
execution of svn commands may leave the wc in an undesired,
non-deterministic state, possibly unknown to the user. commits to the
repository would then leave the repository in an unknown,
non-deterministic state. further commands/commits may serve to aggravate
the problem.

3. you're assuming that the user is aware of the problems in the .svn
directory. that may not be the case, since many (most?) people do not
verify the contents of the .svn directory.

> I've had some .svn directories get lost, and subversion has stopped recognizing my directories as
> working copies. So what? Just check out into a different directory and copy your files into the
> fresh wc.

the problem isn't losing the .svn directory entirely, it's if it gets
changed (as above).

-- 
Alvin Thompson
Navy: 34
Army: 6
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