Re: SVN need to delete/create-temp/rename files instead of simply ove rwriting them (suggestion how to workaround)

Ben Collins-Sussman schrieb:

> It sounds like your frustration is that Subversion is not completely
> "ported" to any one OS. It doesn't understand or preserve NTFS ACLs,
> nor does it understand or preserve Unix hardlinks or devices.

Even without understanding all these concepts, Subversion could still
preserve them.

I have seen this topic discussion on the list before, and as previous, I
find the response from the subversion developer(s) a bit unfair.

I understand the situation as follows (please correct me if I am wrong):

It is o.k. for Subversion to ignore and not care about standard and
extended file attributes like ownership, security, attached streams etc.
However, to not know about these things and yet leave them intact,
Subversion needs to preserver the *identity* of a file. When modifying
files, Subversion currently creates a new temp file from scratch, works
on that, and finally renames the temp file to the original file's name,
destroying the original file with all the attributes. Basically you
create a new object and destroy the original object, instead of applying
changes to the original object.

If subversion would would create a backup of the file's *content* in a
temp file and then make the modifications on the original file, then all
the attributes would be preserved, and the code would still be fully
portable.

Wasn't one of Subversion fundamental rules not to destroy user's data?
Are file attributes/security part of user's data?

Norbert

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Received on Sun Dec 5 19:46:15 2004