David Weintraub wrote:
> We agree that tags have several short comings:
>
> Tags are not first class objects in Subversion -- just another
> directory. It is up to the administrator to know that a particular
> directory is a tag and not a branch. This type of knowledge is stored
> in the implementation of the site and not in Subversion itself.
Being in a directory "/tags/" conveys the meaning pretty well - could
explain why this should be considered a shortcoming?
> Once a tag is created, there is no real mechanism built into
> Subversion that protects the sanctity of that tag. A user can checkout
> the tag's directory, make modifications, then commit those changes.
> This means an admin could create a REV1.0 tag directory, and have
> users change it without the administrator's knowledge.
Hook scripts can resolve this item without any changes to Subversion itself.
> There is also no way a tag can be used in Subversion's "svn" sub
> commands. For example, in order to compare the current version of
> foo.c with foo.c in revision REV1.2, you have to either copy REV1.2's
> version of foo elsewhere and use an external diff command, or find out
> the revision number that was used to create REV1.2, then plug that
> into the diff command. It would be much easier if you could do this:
>
> $ svn diff -rREV1.2 foo.c
Then, perhaps we need to design an acceptable shorthand for:
$ svn diff url://to/repository/tags/REV1.2/foo.c foo.c
> we'd like to see the following features implemented:
>
> 1). There should be a fairly easy to use "svn mklabel" command that
> creates the label.
c.f. "svn cp"
> 2). Anyone should be able to create a label, but only the Subversion
> administrator should be able to change it. This would include editing
> the label, moving it, renaming it, and even deleting it.
Answerable right now using hook scripts.
> 3). You need to be able to list the various label names created.
c.f. "svn ls url://to/repos/tags"
(I'm aware that tags are presently quite lacking in their query-ability -
but in that case, perhaps we should enhance tags, rather than create a new
similar concept)
> 4). Most importantly, all of the sub commands for svn and svnlook that
> take the --revision parameter must understand the concept of labels.
> That is, I should be able to specify a label rather than a revision
> number, and Subversion automatically does the right thing
But anything which can take an URL, can refer to a tag.
> Any thoughts about labels vs. tags?
I think the overriding summary thought has to be "Is there really anything
labels could do, which (suitably enhanced) tags could not?".
Max.
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Received on Mon May 23 19:46:03 2005