Re: Proposal - option to store unzipped office documents on server side.

Paul Hammant <paul_at_hammant.org> writes:

> It would be great if there were a setting somewhere like:
>
> unzip_these_suffiixes_on_serverside_but_reconstitute_zipped_form_for_client_interop:
> docx, xlsx, pptx
>
> (or 'unzip_rezip_suffixes')
>
>
> So Subversion gets to store the text forms (rather than the zip), with

You are not the first to ask for this, but it is significantly more
complex than just a backend setting.

Given unzipped data U there is no single, canonical, compressed form Z
that represents U. Instead there are multiple forms Z1, Z2, ... that
all expand to U. If the client sends Z1 there is no guarantee that the
server will be able to recreate Z1 from U, it might produce Z2, Z3, ...
I suppose a version control system could be designed to allow you to
commit Z1 and get back any of Z1, Z2, Z3, ... but Subversion makes, and
assumes, the exact opposite: that you get back exactly what you commit.
If you break that assumption changes will be necessary all through
Subversion including, but not limited to, delta transfer, working copy
storage, checksum verification, client post-commit processing,
client-server compatibility, server upgrades, etc.

-- 
Philip