Do Binary Checkins send just Differences?

I had thought because of the following:

============================================================
# Client/server protocol sends diffs in both directions

The network protocol uses bandwidth efficiently by
transmitting diffs in both directions whenever possible
(CVS sends diffs from server to client, but not client
to server).
============================================================
and from the SVN Book:

"Also, the cached pristine files allow the Subversion client
 to send differences when committing, which CVS cannot do."
============================================================

that modifying a large powerpoint presentation (20MB) would not send the
whole file but just a patch-file.

This doesn't seem to be the case - commits take ages - many minutes over
an ADSL line.

After this happened I tried to generate a patch file but it evidently
only applies to text files.

There are algorithms that determine the smallest (or really small)
change-set needed to update a remote file to make it the same as a local
one (eg rsync ..._

Is there a way of making subversion send just the minimal change-set,
does it already do it (and my minor changes to the Powerpoint file
somehow rewrote large chunks of the file), or have I misunderstood the
manual as quoted above?

Thanks
Giovanni

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@subversion.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@subversion.tigris.org
Received on Tue Oct 5 03:56:08 2004