Re: wildcard authz docs question

On Thu, May 4, 2017 at 10:16 AM, Daniel Shahaf <d.s_at_daniel.shahaf.name> wrote:
> Doug Robinson wrote on Wed, May 03, 2017 at 15:54:50 -0400:
...
>> Not seeing it - at least not yet. In Perl the RE needed to handle
>> this would be one of the duals, e.g. "/trunk/iota(|/.*)" - the
>> either/or with nothing on the left and "/.*" on the right. It really
>> is a dual case. I know of no better syntax. Since we're working on
>> this as a wildcard I don't see an alternative.
>
> Off the top of my head, we could have [/trunk/iota/***] and
> [/trunk/iota/**] with different meanings (the former applies to
> a /trunk/iota file, the latter doesn't). Does anyone else (besides Doug
> and I) have ideas here?

Hmm, /*** doesn't look like something I'd remember easily, if I wanted
to use that feature as an svn admin.

I have only followed this discussion from a distance. If I understand
correctly the remaining point is whether or not /iota/** would match
with the file /iota or not. Speaking purely from my own intuition, I
would say "no". I feel this pattern is intended to apply to the
_subtree_ below iota, including iota itself (which is thus implied to
be a directory, because we're talking about subtrees). In practice I
think the admin configuring this rule will know whether iota is ever
intended to be a file or a directory. A rule like that to me always
implies that "the guy who configured it" expects iota to be a
directory (why else would he put a "subtree rule" for it).

TBH, I also don't really see the use case of "I want this rule to
apply to the _namespace_ iota, i.e. to the file iota (if it's a file)
and to directory iota and its subtree (if it's a directory)". In
context, you always know whether it's meant to be a file or a
directory.

Maybe we should just follow what most other implementations do?
I've done a quick check in Atlassian FishEye / Crucible (searching for
files). There /iota/** does not match file /iota (but it does match
directory /iota).

-- 
Johan