Re: can "svnadmin dump" tolerate read-only repository access?

On 2/28/2011 11:00 AM, James Ralston wrote:
> On 2011-02-28 at 10:49-08 David Chapman<dcchapman_at_acm.org> wrote:
>> A "hot copy" by definition is one that will safely allow read-only
>> access while the backup is in progress.
> But I asked about "svnadmin dump", not "svnadmin hotcopy".
>
> Are you asserting that read-only repository access (in our case, via
> WebDAV via mod_dav_svn) will *not* perturb a running "svnadmin dump"
> operation?
>
>

Sorry, missed that detail.

Per the book:

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn.reposadmin.maint.html#svn.reposadmin.maint.tk.svnadmin

"Note that *svnadmin dump* is reading revision trees from the repository
just like any other "reader" process would (e.g., *svn checkout*), so
it's safe to run this command at any time."

You may have to scroll down a bit to find this text.

I always do a hot copy first; since no one else can access the hot copy
I don't have to worry about "svnadmin dump" conflicts. Of course, my
repositories are still writable while I'm running my backups. The main
issue as I understand it is determining exactly which revision is the
"last" and not copying any data beyond that one. For you, hot copy plus
dump would take longer, which would be an issue for your developers.
But if you prevent commits (including revprop changes) during the
transition, you should be fine.

-- 
     David Chapman         dcchapman_at_acm.org
     Chapman Consulting -- San Jose, CA