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Re: Subversion Problem - How to save file modify time?

From: 郭煜 <guoy_at_dscomm.com.cn>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:19:16 +0800

Dear SVN dev-team,


    Having read subversion dev-team's opinion, I understand your pressure of supporting file modification time from regulating the cooperation within software modules even third-party modules. I think that subversion-v2.0 like Mr.Phippard said is a good suggestion.

    At the same time , I find that you have discussed on this problem for several years. It's too long. But in my working plan charged by my boss, new version control system should be put into using no later than this year-end and I need three weeks to tryout, if there's no special instance. I like subversion best. Could you please discuss this problem again and reply to me before July.18 ? If the outcome is "no", I will not trouble you anymore.

    Waiting for your reply solicitously.


Thanks & Best Regards,
Yvon Guo Yu , 郭煜 / 上海迪爱斯通讯设备公司 开发一部
Addr: 上海市平江路15号(zip:200050)
Tel(O): 86-21-64031580 x 2503
Tel(M): 13916313249

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Collins-Sussman" <sussman_at_red-bean.com>
To: <dev_at_subversion.tigris.org>
Cc: "郭煜" <guoy_at_dscomm.com.cn>; "Norbert Unterberg" <nunterberg_at_gmail.com>; <users_at_subversion.tigris.org>
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: Subversion Problem - How to save file modify time?


> Julian: sounds like a good idea, I'll augment the FAQ.
>
> Ryan: you and guoy have made a fairly compelling case (to me, at
> least) that we should add a feature which at least saves the original
> mod-time of a file in some sort of property; that information
> wouldn't be totally lost.
>
> On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 3:45 AM, Julian Foad <julianfoad_at_btopenworld.com> wrote:
> > Ben,
> >
> > This is a pretty well written answer to a Frequently Asked Question that
> > doesn't seem to be in <faq.html>. Fancy putting it there?
> >
> > - Julian
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 2008-07-10 at 21:43 -0500, Ben Collins-Sussman wrote:
> >> This feature has been discussed over and over through the years; if
> >> you search the dev@ archives, you can read the debates. The opinion
> >> of the dev team is that this is not a useful feature in general;
> >> while it might help a very small minority of users that wish to track
> >> original timestamps, it would create more trouble and complexity for
> >> the majority, and be hard to maintain. So the lack of this feature is
> >> a deliberate decision, not an accidental oversight.
> >>
> >> The arguments against the feature have basically been:
> >>
> >> * When no version control is used, then it's clear file timestamps are
> >> critical. They're the only indication of a file's "version". But
> >> once the files are placed into version control, what's the point of
> >> tracking the original datestamps? Version control is now providing
> >> much more detailed tracking of versions and dates. It's solving the
> >> problem is a much more thorough way.
> >>
> >> * Version control is typically used for code. Having timestamps
> >> touched by 'svn update' solves the 90% use-case of causing programs
> >> like 'make' to rebuild exactly what has changed. This is a useful and
> >> important default behavior.
> >>
> >> * For all other cases, the 'use-commit-times=true' option causes
> >> timestamps to reflect repository mod-times, rather than 'svn up'
> >> mod-times, thus providing the same sort of simulated
> >> versioning-via-timestamp for files being exported to people without
> >> subversion.
> >>
> >> * If you want to be even friendlier to people without subversion, you
> >> can put $LastChangedDate$ or $Revision$ keywords directly into the
> >> files to be expanded.
> >>
> >> If none of these features satisifes your use-case, I'm curious to hear
> >> exactly what you're trying to accomplish, and why these solutions
> >> don't work for you.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 2008/7/10 郭煜 <guoy_at_dscomm.com.cn>:
> >> > Dear Mr. Unterberg,
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Yes , I see that subversion support good functions but based on lost
> >> > file modify date. Is it?
> >> >
> >> > I like subversion client very much. But as an end user, we can't select
> >> > a version control system which can't save file modify date. Because this is
> >> > very important for our team-work in software developement progress. It's so
> >> > sorry.
> >> >
> >> > I think that you can get better idea yourself to shot the problem
> >> > later. Perhaps other version control system could be your referrence. If
> >> > this problem is ok, contract me as soon as you can please. We'll select
> >> > subversion as our version control system.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks & Best Regards,
> >> > Yvon Guo Yu , 郭煜 / 上海迪爱斯通讯设备公司 开发一部
> >> > Addr: 上海市平江路15号(zip:200050)
> >> > Tel(O): 86-21-64031580 x 2512
> >> > Tel(MB): 13916313249
> >> >
> >> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> > From: "Norbert Unterberg" <nunterberg_at_gmail.com>
> >> > To: "郭煜" <guoy_at_dscomm.com.cn>
> >> > Cc: <users_at_subversion.tigris.org>; <dev_at_subversion.tigris.org>
> >> > Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 5:06 AM
> >> > Subject: Re: Subversion Problem - How to save file modify time?
> >> >> 2008/7/10 郭煜 <guoy_at_dscomm.com.cn>:
> >> >> > Dear Invendor,
> >> >> >
> >> >> > This is a software company in china. I'm an engineer at
> >> >> > develope-management department.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > We used other version control system as perforce or starteam before.
> >> >> > Now we are trying subversion.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > During trying subversion, we find that file modify time could not be
> >> >> > saved into subversion and get from subversion.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Is it a design problem or deploy problem ? I hope it's a deploy
> >> >> > problem. How to shot it, if a deploy problem.
> >> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> There is a configuration option "use-commit-times" which you can find
> >> >> in the documentation, It does not preserve the real file modify time
> >> >> but the commit time which might be good enough.
> >> >> However, for software development, the default behaviour (file time is
> >> >> the time of last update or checkout) usually works best.
> >> >>
> >> >> The problem with preserving file modify time is that it is very hard
> >> >> to do right. What is the correct modify time if two people change the
> >> >> same file and then they commit/update/merge the data? What to do when
> >> >> merging a branch? IF SVN modifies the file contents during a commit
> >> >> (see svn:keyword property) does that count as a file modification or
> >> >> not?
> >> >>
> >> >> Norbert
> >> >>
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
> >
>
Received on 2008-07-15 02:13:21 CEST

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