RE: Re: Another request for obliterate...

Tim Hill wrote:
> Apart from all the oddities that David mentions,
> what are the *real* needs for obliterate? I can only think of a few...
>
> 1. Recover disk space. Hmmm ... at $1/GB ???

Plus backup, admin time and server time for backup...

> 2. Clean-up after an accidental commit of files that should not
> be in the repo. Well, what's wrong with SVN RM? Sure, the files
> are around in an old revision, but see #1 for my comments on that!

See #3 below.

> 3. Delete a file that contains sensitive data that should not have
> been in svn (e.g. encryption keys, atom bomb plans) in the first place.
> Well, if sensitive data gets in svn "by mistake" I'd say you had broader
> problems than just lack of obliterate.

This is like saying "There need not be laws on murder as if you have
somebody out there killing people you have a bigger problem than having
no laws".

> Most importantly, as David notes, obliterating a file can have
> ripple-through effect on other parts of a repo.

This is indeed a problem, but that's why having it as an admin tool
only and hoping that the admin knows what he does is in order. After
all he could rm -rf the whole repository and do not much more harm
than that.

Consider it as a cute way to do dump & filter & load with reduced
risk of making stupid mistakes for the admin.

> My vote on obliterate is NO.

I have no say on that but if I had it would be "I'd be grateful if
someone took the time to implement it".

Andre'

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Received on Fri Apr 15 07:30:22 2005