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Re: Binary files and repository disc usage

From: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch_at_stats.uwo.ca>
Date: 2005-05-19 12:00:22 CEST

Dave Proctor wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've read through the emailing lists, and documentation, and wonder how
> other people deal with large fast changing binary data?
>
> For example, we have data directories within our projects which are in the
> order of a couple of hundred megabytes. The data is compressed, and the
> changes to it are a) frequent and b) wide ranging - ie the data itself
> changes significantly with each change.
>
> In an ideal world, we would be able to put this under subversion's control,
> but be able to let subversion know not to keep a history of these
> directories/files, unless for instance we specifically wanted a certain
> revision to be kept. Basically the ability to be able to selectively
> overwrite the head, not create a new revision.

I don't have experience with this situation, but it strikes me that you
don't really want to use subversion most of the time, you just want it
for a few milestones. In most cases you just need a backup or central
source of a current version of the file.

Why not just use it that way? Use rsync or other tools to stay in sync
with a master copy on the server for most updates. Occasionally, when
you want to archive a version, update the copy in your repository.

You do risk losing changes if someone syncs to a bad version in between
commits to the repository, but presumably standard backup solutions can
deal with that.

Duncan Murdoch
>
> Ie, we go through 4 weeks of the data changing, each time it changes, the
> data is commited to the repository but just overwrites the previous
> revision. However, then we go through a milestone and want to be able to go
> back to the specific data currently in the repository. Then, for the next
> four weeks the data changes quickly again - but basically the repository now
> only maintains 2 versions of the data.
>
> I've read about svn obliterate and other related areas - it seems that this
> sort of behaviour isn't supported.
>
> I guess Im not asking a specific question, more just wanting to know how
> other people deal with this sort of thing. Obviously my concern is if we put
> the data in question under subversion control, the repository will quickly
> grow to such a huge size it won't be practical.
>
> Many thanks for any help/suggestions!
>
> Cheers,
>
> - Dave.
>
>
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Received on Thu May 19 12:01:44 2005

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