Re: svn:externals to another svn:externals issue

On Jan 17, 2012, at 17:33 , Andrew wrote:

> Hello all!
>
> I've got an issue with a repo that I manage regarding svn:externals
> and have been unable to find any information regarding it (apologies
> if the issue has already been brought up and I didn't find it.)
>
> So I've got a pair of projects, we'll call them /tools and /libs.
> Under each I'm using ./tags/v1.0 ./tags/v2.0 as well as an
> svn:externals of ./tags/latest which points to the most recent tagged
> version.

Subversion tags are URLs in a repository. The svn:externals values
are stored, but not interpreted, in the repository.

> This all works fine. What I'd like to do and seem to be
> unable is to use svn:externals to point from /tools/tags/v2.0/libs to
> /libs/tags/latest, as that directory only exists as a property of it's
> parent. I'd like to use this so that I don't have to worry about
> updating the libs path for my tools every time I release a new
> version.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas on how I might be able to accomplish this
> or a more effective way of managing this code?

One idea is to

  svn rm ^/libs/tags/latest
  svn cp ^/libs/tags/1.1 ^/libs/tags/latest

every time you create a new tag, so that the .../latest URL is a copy
of the most recent tag. Teams accustomed to "promotion levels"
(i.e., coming from a version control system that includes build and
release management) often use this kind of scheme after switching
to Subversion.

But the actual content of .../latest is obscured by the generic name.
You need to run 'svn log' to find out what's actually there.

I'd prefer to use unique tag URLs in svn:externals, with peg revisions
of course. When tagging a new releases, instead of silently swapping
a .../latest URL, I'd announce it via a bug-tracker or continuous
integration system. Or by email or just shouting across the room.

Steve

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