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Re: "Flaw" revisited (was: Bug? FSFS revision control)

From: Brass Tilde <brasstilde_at_insightbb.com>
Date: 2005-01-27 13:55:16 CET

> 2. Do you feel bothered that modifying a single number value from a
text-based file can and would
> result in the rewriting of the repository's very own revision history?
Not even a bit? After all, it
> greatly diminishes the accuracy of said revision history which you
probably care about.

No.

I can easily set permissions on the set of directories and files so that
such modification isn't possible. This scenario is no more dangerous than
deleting any of the files, at the OS level, in the FSFS repository, or
deleting files from a BDB, again, at the OS level, and that too can be
prevented by permissions.

> And, alas, that is my point.

And, alas, everyone else's point is that your supposed "flaw" is no more
dangerous than a hundred other things that can happen to the repository at
the OS level. Nor is it any different from the same types of things that
can happen to any other data file for any other progam. None of which are
prevented by the programs that use that data.

Preventing OS access to the repository is no more Subversion's
responsibility than is preventing OS access to .doc or .xls files for Word
or Excel. It's unreasonable to expect every application to manage OS access
to it's files. The OS is the place to prevent that.

> I beg everybody to take a quick breath and ask yourself if changing that
single number of that
> single file should result into a worthless version control solution (more
easier to attain in FSFS
> than BDB, especially without actually hampering the operations of SVN).

It's no worse than the havoc that can be wreaked by doing the same type of
thing to PVCS or CVS (and I've seen similar things happen to *both* of those
products, because the permissions weren't set properly).

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Received on Thu Jan 27 13:57:45 2005

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