Re: rationale for 'svnversion' (vs 'svn version') ?

Hello Micheal,

>> While translating svn help messages in French, it occured to me that
>> the rationale for a separate commande 'svnversion', vs a simple
>> subcommand of svn, 'svn version', is quite unclear, at least to me.
>
> Well, for your specific suggestion, it's because there already is an
> 'svn version', which tells you what version of the 'svn' binary you
> are using.

not on my 'version', or is it a new feature not in trunk yet ?

         sh> svn version
         Unknown command: 'version'
         Type 'svn help' for usage.

although there is a 'svn --version', but as an option, not a subcommand.

> My reason for preferring a separate executable is that I don't think
> svnversion is something that your everyday Subversion user is going to
> use or care a thing about. In my mind, it exists as a utility program
> because its functionality isn't important enough to be a full-fledge
> 'svn' subcommand.

When I'm looking for something in svn I do a 'svn help', so I cannot find
it easilly. I ran into it while translating the documentation, although I
browse through the whole subversion book.

Moreoer, svn consistent user philosophy seems to have just 'one' command,
and svnversion is the only exception to that. svnadmin, svnserve and
svnlook have very different purposes. It means you have to bother with a
man-page and so on for that only small command.

I can also return your argument, and say that if svnversion interest is so
low, just make it a subcommand instead of a full executable that will
pollute the path, which already has 3910 of them;-)

Moreover, I found it useful to query whether an update would be useful to
have an homogeneous copy, without actually doing it. It much more useful
to me than 'svn blame'.

Well, just my two pences;-)

Thanks for your answer, have a nice day,

-- 
Fabien.
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