[svn.haxx.se] · SVN Dev · SVN Users · SVN Org · TSVN Dev · TSVN Users · Subclipse Dev · Subclipse Users · this month's index

Re: import files preserving timestamps

From: Reedick, Andrew <jr9445_at_ATT.COM>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:00:18 -0500

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Reibert [mailto:svn_at_reibert.com]
> Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 1:23 AM
> To: Erik Huelsmann
> Cc: stephan herschel; users_at_subversion.tigris.org
> Subject: Re: import files preserving timestamps
>
> Most often when I hear this request and ask "Why?", I get a response
> like the following (and this is a quote):
>
> "When you synchronize a configuration to your local drive, the
> timestamps on all the files and directories written to the local drive
> are set to the time of the synchronization (current time), not the
> time/date when the file or directory was last changed; Therefore, you
> can not sort the files by timestamp to see what was recently changed.
> Everything looks like it just changed. This is probably the worst
> feature of SVN."
>
> There seems to be a real conceptual disconnect here. The history of
the
> files is in the repository, not the working copy. "svn log" is your
> friend.
>

Actually, "svn ls -v ... | sort" would be your friend. Instead of
sorting by timestamp, you're sorting by last changed revision number,
which in most cases is as good as or more accurate than timestamps.

As for timestamps in general, they're a recommendation, not an absolute
truth. The only trusted way to manage versioned files in the wild is to
audit them either via checksums or bit comparisons. So the real
solution to timestamps is to develop an auditing system that's as
easy/fast to use as eyeballing timestamps. Which implies creating
baselines and more importantly, accurately recording what baseline
should be where.

Once you can push a button to determine if you have the correct set of
files, the desire for accurate timestamps diminishes greatly.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe_at_subversion.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-help_at_subversion.tigris.org
Received on 2008-06-10 18:03:32 CEST

This is an archived mail posted to the Subversion Users mailing list.

This site is subject to the Apache Privacy Policy and the Apache Public Forum Archive Policy.