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Subversion checked-out files not indexed in Windows search

From: Gareth McCaughan <Gareth.McCaughan_at_lightblueoptics.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:25:40 +0000

It appears that files checked out using Subversion (1.7 onwards)
are marked as not indexable by Windows search. The way in which
this happens appears to be as follows:

When the WC is created:

1. .svn directory is created, and marked as hidden and not indexable.
2. .svn/tmp directory is created, and inherits that not-indexable
   property. (Or maybe it's given it explicitly; I haven't checked.)

On checkout:

1. Temporary file is created under .svn, and accordingly gets its
   not-indexable flag set.
2. Temporary file is moved to its proper location; this doesn't
   cause the not-indexable flag to be cleared.

So the point is that the NOT_CONTENT_INDEXABLE attribute on a
directory doesn't exactly mean "don't search inside this directory"
but "make files created in this directory searchable". Then when
they get moved elsewhere they retain that unsearchability.

(If skeptical, you can see this "by hand" on a Windows machine,
as follows: Create a directory A and subdirectory A\B. Right-click
on B, select "Properties", select "Advanced", uncheck the
allow-indexing box. Create two files A\B\C.txt and A\B\D.txt
and put the word "wombat" in each. Now right-click D.txt,
select "Properties", select "Advanced", and *check* the
allow-indexing box; and drag C.txt out of A\B and into A.
Now, in A, search for "wombat" using Windows Search. It will
find D.txt even though it's in the unsearchable folder A\B,
and it will not find C.txt even though it's in the searchable
folder A, because what actually matters is the attributes on
the files.)

                            *

Windows Search is of course generally a poor tool for searching
source code, but this still seems fairly clearly (1) unintended
and (2) undesirable.

Should I file an issue? If not, will someone else?

                            *

I am not familiar with the code responsible for this, but
a little browsing suggests that the rename is being done
in svn_stream__install_stream (called from run_file_install
in libsvn_wc/workqueue.c) by a call to SetFileInformationByHandle,
and that this function is capable of changing the file attributes
at the same time as doing the rename. I make no claim that
this would actually be a good solution.

                            *

(Note 1. This seems to have been reported informally a couple
of times before, but I don't see that it's ever received an
official answer, had an issue filed in the Subversion issue
tracker, or been fixed. Apologies if it has and I've missed it.)

(Note 2. I have observed the behaviour described above on
Windows 7 using svn 1.7.5, and on Windows 8 using svn 1.8.3.
There is nothing in the CHANGES file to suggest it's likely
to have been fixed since then, but I can check with the latest
release if that's necessary.)

(Note 3. I am not subscribed to users@ but will check for
replies in the online archives; best to Cc: me, though, if
you have questions or comments you want to be sure I'll see.)

-- 
Gareth McCaughan
Received on 2014-03-10 15:58:04 CET

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