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RE: Bug? FSFS revision control

From: Dassi, Nasser <NDassi_at_141xm.com>
Date: 2005-01-27 00:53:43 CET

Hehe, I actually beg to differ (there are always exceptions in
absolutes).

[snip]
Sorry to pile on here, but this is silly. I *promise* you that I, with
the help from nothing but Notepad (or another text editor), can destroy
data integrity for *any* application that keeps data files, if I have
write access to the data files.
[/snip]

Simple example: Have you tried opening MS SQL Server data files (LDF,
MDF) in Notepad when the SQL Server is running? You cannot even open it
because the process/service has a full-on lock to the files. Mind you
that technically He-Who-Installs-SQL-Has-Write-Access. Interesting,
eh?!

If Subversion employed a similar tactic for FSFS, then at least some
files (like the revision counter) would not be editable until SVN is
stopped (read: removed). And although every single sysadmin can lock
down to this extent, I doubt they'd be the best judge to decide what's
critical for SVN to operate in a more data-reliable manner.

Yes; "services" are employed in Windows. Yes, system-level processes do
control (some Oses at least) very low-level data files and a "safe-mode"
(or super-root) is the only way to truly manipulate the data stored
within -- although an in-memory process can surely control read-write to
it (read: lock) while the OS is operating normally.

Eh? :o)

Nasser Dassi
Sr. Technical Programmer
=========================================
E: ndassi@141xm.com
=========================================

-----Original Message-----
From: Jamie Lawrence [mailto:jal@jal.org]
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 6:31 PM
To: Dassi, Nasser
Cc: users@subversion.tigris.org
Subject: Re: Bug? FSFS revision control

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005, Dassi, Nasser wrote:

> Because.
>
> Wouldn't it be nice to not blame the OS for everything? Wouldn't it
> be nice if write access was not the *only* way to cause havoc to an
> oh-so-precious version control solution?

[...]

> At the very least the revision counter should not get so easily
> adjusted. In all honesty, data integrity should not get jeopardized by

> opening Notepad!

Sorry to pile on here, but this is silly. I *promise* you that I, with
the help from nothing but Notepad (or another text editor), can destroy
data integrity for *any* application that keeps data files, if I have
write access to the data files.

It is as simple as that.

-j

-- 
Jamie Lawrence                                        jal@jal.org
You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a
smile and a gun.
   - Al Capone
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Received on Thu Jan 27 00:57:03 2005

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