[RFC] Add a 'symlink' node kind in svn_node_kind_t or svn_kind_t

Is it time to create a node-kind enumeration type that includes
'symlink' and use it widely, making symlinks a top-level node kind, at
least on the client side? We have already done this in the WC with
svn_wc__db_kind_t. It seems like we're moving in that direction.

Greg prompted me half way down this email:
<http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2011-10/0084.shtml>, so I knocked up an
initial implementation in the 'tree-read-api' branch:
<http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?revision=1180839&view=revision>,
<http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?revision=1180932&view=revision>.

This introduces 'svn_kind_t' which is like 'svn_node_kind_t' but also
has a 'symlink' kind.

I haven't thought through how this would affect the future of the
'svn:special' property. Were there any plans to make 'svn:special'
describe special files other than symlinks (devices, pipes, etc.)?

Thoughts?

My current attempt at an implementation for svn_ra_check_path2()
<http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?revision=1181040&view=revision> is ugly,
as Bert pointed out in
<http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2011-10/0105.shtml>: it reads the kind
through the RA session, then it reads the properties as a second
operation, and looks for a svn:special property. We'll want a better
solution there and I'm not sure what that would look like.

- Julian
Received on 2011-10-11 12:20:35 CEST