Monty wrote:
> Hi svn-dev,
>
> I got stuck on a problem with "svn log" that firstly made no sense :)
> But after figuring out how the "svn log" works, I would kindly request
> an improvement request in a border case.
>
> Scenario:
>
> Within 1 repository, there are 2 folders: A & B.
> Kate has access to A & B [let's say rw], John has access to B only.
>
> Now Kate makes a commit [let's say revision 5] that modifies files in
> both folders: A/foo and B/bar. Being a pragmatic programmer she is, she
> of course provides a commit message.
>
> Now whichever way Kate checks revision history, everything is ok.
> However when John checks revision history [for the file visible for him,
> i.e. B/bar], he does see the commit message. He does see the revision
> [5], but not the message Kate carefully worded.
>
> The command John executed was "svn log --username john
> https://svn-repository/B/foo". And to sysadmins' surprise, Apache error
> log showed: "Access denied: 'john' GET svn-repository:/A/foo
>
> So... to sum it up:
> * John does see all his commit comments
> * John also sees Kate's commit comments, if her particular commit only
> touched B].
> * If there's a commit by Kate that involves A & B, John does not see the
> comment for that particular commit.
>
> It seems there is an assumption that if you have permissions to view a
> file in a specific commit, you can see all files in the commit. In our
> use case this is not (and can't be made) true.
It might be because I'm reading the above incorrectly, but I don't think
you've expressed the correct assumption that Subversion makes.
The assumptions that Subversion makes are these:
* A file whose contents are unreadable by user X might also have a
pathname that user X shouldn't be allowed to see.
* A log message in which paths A and B are changed might actually mention
paths A and B by potentially-sensitive name.
When you combine the assumptions, you understand Subversion's behavior.
John isn't allowed to see any paths in A. Kate's commit to both A and B
might mentioned paths in B. Therefore, John shouldn't see Kate's commit log.
--
C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato_at_collab.net>
CollabNet <> www.collab.net <> Distributed Development On Demand
------------------------------------------------------
http://subversion.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=462&dsMessageId=2425543
Please start new threads on the <dev_at_subversion.apache.org> mailing list.
To subscribe to the new list, send an empty e-mail to <dev-subscribe_at_subversion.apache.org>.
Received on 2009-11-30 17:21:29 CET