Re: [feature] Log HTTP header for autoversioning

On Jan 13, 2005, at 6:30 PM, Max Bowsher wrote:
>
> At this point, I feel I have to defer to someone more knowledgable
> about the innards of mod_dav_svn regarding whether this feature's
> balance of increased complexity to usefulness is worthwhile overall.
>

That's me -- I'm one of the project's mod_dav_svn experts, and wrote
the autoversioning feature. And I'm here to rain on the parade. :-(

I really don't like these suggestions; the autoversioning feature was
written so that an subversion server could be minimally interoperable
with vanilla DAV clients. But both of these suggestions (the
content-type, and the log: header) are straddling this weird middle
ground. It's not pure DAV, but it's not DeltaV either. It's like "DAV
with extra custom stuff."

I don't think we should be in the business of creating this weird
middle zone. If you're writing an application to access a repository
via apache, you have three solid options:

    * use the svn library APIs from C, perl, python, whatever.
        This gives you maximum functionality and total control.

    * use pure WebDAV commands (after turning on Autoversioning).
        You get minimal features, but the command set is very tiny
        and easy to use.

    * use WebDAV/deltaV commands.
        All features available, though the command set is larger
        and more complex.

It's just way too messy to start developing a bunch of strange, custom
tweaks to pure WebDAV. It's not something we should take on,
support-wise... certainly not when there are already three valid tracks
to use.

I'd be glad to help anyone pursue any of these tracks.

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Received on Fri Jan 14 01:49:49 2005