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Re: [PROPOSAL] Issue 823 - svn checkout a single file

From: Ben Collins-Sussman <sussman_at_red-bean.com>
Date: 2006-04-27 13:41:59 CEST

On 4/27/06, Madan U Sreenivasan <madan@collab.net> wrote:

> hmmm..... I think that there shouldnt be an entry for a file that doesnt
> exist in the current wc.

That would mean that the .svn/entries file is incomplete. And when
the entries file is incomplete, then 'svn up' takes much longer ...
it has to resort to CVS-style update reporting. Instead of saying to
the server, "I have revision 2349 of this directory", it has to say,
"I have revision 2349 of this directory, but I don't know if my list
of children is complete; so here's a list of every child that I have:
 A, B, C, D..." Very inefficient.

Why wouldn't you want the entries file to be complete and
knowledgeable all the time? The entries file isn't supposed to be a
*literal* reflection of the directory, but rather the central
storehouse for all metadata about the directory: and some of that
metadata simply reflects which children are actually present or not,
or wanted by the user or not. I would argue that such metadata is
better represented as a flag (or set of flags), rather than removal of
the entire entry! If the whole entry is missing, you have less
control over the situation, and have crippled your ability to talk to
the server.

> designing a new UI? you mean adding of a new
> option/suboptions, right?

Yeah, some UI that allows the user to say, "make this child go away, I
don't want it", or "make this child come back again".

>
> I agree.... but not something dependant on the larger issue to get
> fixed... in fact, fixing this might pave the way to solve the 'svn co -N'
> simpler... dont you think so?

I think it's the other way around! If you implement 'svn co -N' and a
UI to say "give me this one child", then you're done. That's exactly
the procedure to get a single file checkout.

>
> > The task is currently listed as
> > something for a Summer of Code student to work on (on our tasks page:
> > http://subversion.tigris.org/project_tasks.html), but if Madan wants
> > to start working on it earlier, that would be neat too.
>
> Yes, I want to work on this... I earlier thought the change would be
> localized to libsvn_wc.... looking at the code, am now thinking - it
> wouldnt be...

Nope, it would probably require network and server changes too.

>
> > The trick is
> > to resurrect Ben's notes and design and patch-in-progress, and
> > continue the work...
>
> yep.... could you help me out with this pl.
>

Try searching for the most recent emails from Ben Reser.

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Received on Thu Apr 27 13:42:30 2006

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