Re: Older versions through http-repository browsing

On Fri, Mar 04, 2005 at 10:20:08AM -0600, Ben Collins-Sussman wrote:
>...
> Matthias: you keep saying that the ability to look at an arbitrary
> repository object in a browser is some sort of "killer" or "critical"
> feature of Subversion. Let me eradicate that idea from your mind:
> this is *not* a core feature of Subversion. It's an accidental
> artifact of the fact that one of our servers just happens to use HTTP,
> and that HTTP GET just _happens_ to grab the latest version of the
> file. It's not a designed feature, nor is it a planned one. We don't
> go around bragging about it or listing it in any whitepapers. Remember
> that half of all svn installations don't even use apache as their
> server!

What are you talking about, Ben? It *is* a designed and planned feature of
Subversion. Five years ago, I said that we ought to use HTTP *precisely*
so that we can have this feature. You and Karl blustered about wanting a
custom, binary protocol but didn't mind if I wrote up the DAV stuff. Once
you (Ben) mounted an SVN repository on your Windows box, you were sold.

So: the "latest version" reachable at a URI is very much a part of the
design. Maybe not a core conceptual part of Subversion as a version
control system, but very much a central aspect of (one of) its network
communication models.

All that said, the question here is about the private space. We have
always called it private in case we needed to monkey it around in the
future for better WebDAV compatibility. The "!svn" part is customizable by
the server administrator on the off-chance somebody actually needs to a
file or directory named "!svn" into their repository (or they just feel
like being contrary).

But, as we discussed in IM, there is a middle ground here. While we still
don't want to expose "!svn/bc/NNNN/" in any way (in case we need to change
it later), we *can* expose "!svn/rev/NNNN/" and just define that tree as a
revision tree for *servers* to use.

Note that I say servers. Clients cannot assume that path construction. Any
given server might change the "!svn" portion.

But for rewrite tools, CGIs, etc, it is quite possible to build a tool
around ".../rev/NNNN/". Since the CGI or other tool is installed by the
server admin, who also controls the special URI prefix, then they can all
be coordinated.

The changes to mod_dav_svn should be minimal. In repos.c, there is a
special_subdirs[] array. Copy/paste the { "bc", ... } section and rewrite
it to "rev". That should be it. If we ever need to change the "bc" stuff,
then it will get more complicated, but until then, the two are precisely
the same.

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@subversion.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@subversion.tigris.org