[svn.haxx.se] · SVN Dev · SVN Users · SVN Org · TSVN Dev · TSVN Users · Subclipse Dev · Subclipse Users · this month's index

Re: Mnemonic names for revisions?

From: Wolfgang Fritz <wolfgang.fritz_at_keymile.com>
Date: 2004-09-09 10:48:05 CEST

S.Ramaswamy wrote:
> Wolfgang Fritz wrote:
>
>>Hello,
>>
>>I'm in the process of switching from CVS to subversion because of the
>>well known advantages of subversion over CVS.
>>
>>One of the major differences between CVS and subversion is the handling
>>of tags. In CVS, tags are needed to "mark" a certain state of the
>>repository in order to be able to get that state back later. In
>>subversion, you get this for free because each revision _is_ a certain
>>state of the repository.
>>
>>But you have to remember the revision number. So my question:
>>
>>Is there a way to give a certain revision a mnemonic name?
>>
>>I know the suggestion from the book to create a tags subdirectory and
>>copy "tagged" revisions to it, but I must say I don't like this approach
>>too much. It's kind of overkill for the simple problem of remembering a
>>certain revision by a mnemonic name, and it can be plain dangerous if
>>you don't disable "commit-like" modifications to the tags directory.
>>
>>
> Why is it a overkill ? With 'cvs tag' the time it takes depends on the
> size of the directory that is being tagged; svn tagging is a constant

It's not an overkill in the technical sense (I know the concept of
"cheap copies").

Maybe overkill is not the right word at all. But from a user's point of
view it may be easier to understand what a simple "cvs tag" does as to
explain that you have to do a copy operation (and so create a new
revision number) just to "tag" a certain revision to make it easier to
look up later.

Let me say it this way: If I was able to remember what state of my
project a revision represents, I would not need this copying at all. But
I am not because revisions are plain numbers with no mnemonic meaning.

> time operation. If permissions on tag-directories is your concern, you
> might want to check out the section on setting per-directory
> permissions in chapter 6 of the svn book
>

Are per-directory permissions really a solution here? A user must be
able to copy to the tags directory to let him create his tag, but he
must not be allowed to modify this tag later (except from deleteing it
perhaps).

> Ramaswamy
>
>>Wolfgang
>>
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@subversion.tigris.org
>>For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@subversion.tigris.org
>>
>>
>>
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@subversion.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@subversion.tigris.org
Received on Thu Sep 9 10:48:52 2004

This is an archived mail posted to the Subversion Users mailing list.

This site is subject to the Apache Privacy Policy and the Apache Public Forum Archive Policy.