Re: Can you set properties on a file without having it checked out?

On May 12, 2005, at 11:22 AM, David Weintraub wrote:

>
> By the way, I was too shocked by the fact that I cannot add or modify
> properties to files without a working directory. I can make
> directories, copy files, etc. without a working directory, but
> apparently I can not add or change properties.
>

Nor can you change a file's text without a working copy. It's a
safety feature.

If you were able to run 'svn propset color green fileURL', or 'svn
put localfile fileURL', then you might overwrite changes that you've
never seen. The race condition exists simply because Subversion is a
concurrent versioning system: somebody might have committed new
changes to the file one second before you execute your upload... and
blam, you've just overwritten somebody else's changes without
realizing it.

By using a working copy, this situation cannot happen. 'svn commit'
always declares the version of the file that's being changed, and
thus the repository can instantly reject the commit if something
newer just came in.

That said, there *is* an svnput.c example file in svn's source tree.
It does what you think, but it's plastered with these same warnings.
Use at your own risk.

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Received on Thu May 12 19:53:51 2005