Re: How to change paths on an external file without a full update --depth infinity?

On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 1:07 AM, <dlellis_at_rockwellcollins.com> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> In an attempt to work around the slow performance issues with externals, I'm
> trying to perform selective updates on external files without performing an
> "svn update --depth infinity".

First: what "slow performance issues with externals"? Can you give
some concrete numbers, or some references to other posts about this?

What svn version are you using? Is this slowness a new problem?

> If I update the path on an external for foo.c to be from /bar1/ to /bar2/,
> and commit the property change, I'd hope that an "svn update foo.c" would
> result in foo.c being changed from /bar1/ to /bar2/, but it gets deleted
> instead. I understand why foo.c gets deleted (/bar1/foo.c is different
> pedigree than /bar2/foo.c despite the same file name), but would really hope
> to perform an "svn update foo.c" to get the latest version referenced by the
> svn:externals.

This looks similar to this issue:

  http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=4001 (update
fails to replace a file external with an actual node)

It's about replacing a file external with a "normal" versioned node,
in one update. But your description might be some other manifestation
of the same problem ... not sure.

> How can I get svn to fetch me the file referenced in svn:externals without
> performing an "svn update --depth infinity"?
>
> Remind me again why externals are only processed when depth is infinity?

I suppose this issue is the "reason":

  http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3311 (externals
are not created unless depth=infinity)

But I'm not sure (perhaps that issue is only about dir externals).

-- 
Johan