Branko Čibej wrote on Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 13:41:34 +0100:
> On 29.11.2012 12:46, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> > Daniel Shahaf <danielsh_at_elego.de>:
> >>> Subversion's metadata doesn't have separate author and committer
> >>> properties, and doesn't store anything but a Unix user ID as
> >>> attribution. I don't see any way around this.
> >> You're not fully informed, then.
> >>
> >> 1) svn:author revprops can contain any UTF-8 string. They are not
> >> restricted to Unix user id's. (For example, they can contain full
> >> names, if the administrator so chooses.)
> > Right. At one point during the development of this feature I was
> > accidentally storing the full email field in this property. So I
> > already knew that this is allowed at some level.
> >
> > And, I have no trouble believing that svn log will cheerfully echo
> > anything that I choose to stuff in that field.
> >
> > But...
> >
> > (1) How much work would it be it to set up a Subversion installation
> > so that when I svn commit, the tool does the right thing, e.g. puts
> > a DVCS-style fullname/email string in there?
>
> I don't know how common that practice is, but I've worked on a project
> where svn:author was filled in from the DN and e-mail attributes of an
> X-509 certificate. It's also quite easy to set svn:author from
> information stored in LDAP (that is, if you find anything about LDAP
> actually easy).
>
Another option is to change the svn:author prop in the pre-commit hook.
> > RFC: If I wrote a patch that let Subversion users set their own
> > content string for the author field in ~/.subversion/config, would
> > you merge it? Because I'd totally write that.
>
> Hint: svn commit --with-revprop svn:author="Twizzle Strongpants
> <ts_at_interwebs>"
>
> I personally wouldn't mind if that were a user preference in the config
> file. It'd have to be a per-server config option, however; and even
> better, per-repository, which is a concept that the Subversion config
> file does not currently support. (There's a reason why I put my ID into
> .git/config, not ~/.gitconfig.)
>
> Note that it's up to the server administrator to actually allow clients
> to set svn:author (and any other revision property). The assumed, and
> most common, configuration is that the server derives svn:author from
> authentication information.
>
Specifically, the server code special-cases svn:author and svn:date ---
an administrator would have to use a pre-commit hook (or patch the
server) to avoid those being set from the authentication info and system
clock.
> [...]
>
> >> You might also seek community consensus to reserve an svn:foo name for
> >> the "original author" property --- perhaps svn:original-author --- so
> >> that reposurgeon and other git->svn tools can interoperate in the way
> >> they transfer the "original author" information.
> > OK. But I like the idea of letting the users set their own author
> > content string better. Instead of another layer of kluges, why
> > shouldn't Subversion join the DVCSes in the happy land of
> > Internet-scoped attributions?
>
> This discussion has come up before. Today, the assumption that
> svn:author is something that the server has verified (modulo admins'
> shenanigans) is pretty much cast in concrete.
>
> I'm open to suggestions, up to and including breaking that assumption,
> though obviously I'd prefer not to.
>
> -- Brane
>
>
> --
> Branko Čibej
> Director of Subversion | WANdisco | www.wandisco.com
>
Received on 2012-11-29 14:18:46 CET