Andy Peters wrote:
> On Sep 20, 2006, at 2:40 PM, Bastiaan Veelo wrote:
>
>> Thanks for Subversion!
>> In short I would like the possibility to have some files or even
>> directories in the repository and make Subversion just host them and
>> forget about revisions when new commits are made. In other words, do
>> not revision control them and only store the latest revision.
>>
>> I could not find anything about this in the docs or FAQ.
>
> This idea goes against the whole concept of version control.
I can understand your reaction. However, I think the idea has nothing to
do with version control, and therefore does not have to go against the
concept. It would be an extension that would enhance the value of
Subversion as a development aid, by building upon some of its existing
unique features: that it uses HTTP and that it supports MIME types.
Obviously not all files in a project need to be under version control,
illustrated by the property svn:ignore. But some of these files are
still interesting for others to see, like generated documentation and
statically linked example executables. Of course it is no problem to
serve these on a web site, but it requires publishing new versions which
is a hassle especially if there are multiple developers, and it would be
much more natural for visitors if they can find these files side by side
the source of the project, just as they appear after a checkout and
make, by pointing their browser at the trunc. People can have it this
way already by "svn add"ing these generated files, but version
controlling them is a waste of space. I think that the value of being
able to see files from the HEAD of a repository by visiting
http://example.com/svn/trunc/ with an ordinary web browser would be
greatly increased with this feature --- often documentation is much more
interesting to read than the source itself.
Instead of my earlier proposed property, we could have a command
instead. Like "svn host <path>". Contrary to "svn add <path>" this would
tell Subversion to just host a file and not do version control on it.
Newer versions of hosted files in a working copy would be included in a
commit transaction. This way there is a clear separation of concepts, as
files will never change between being version controlled and not being
version controlled, unless they are deleted first.
Best regards,
Bastiaan.
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Received on Thu Sep 21 14:08:41 2006