Re: Subversion fails to checkout new working set when $HOME is automounted

As Daniel Shahaf wrote:

> Well, I don't know whether those semantics are configurable, but you
> might be able to duct tape around them by creating /home/.svn as a local
> directory:

Hmm. Looks strange. ;-)

> > But that's another point. I was more suprised about "svn checkout"
> > traversing upwards at all, as I think this violates the principle of
> > least astonishment.

> For context, one of the reason it does this is to make the following
> error possible:

There are arguments for that, I see.

Would having at least an option to "svn co" that does just not
traverse upwards (for those who know what they are doing) be a
compromise? That way, using the default behaviour:

> ./subversion/libsvn_client/checkout.c:173: (apr_err=SVN_ERR_WC_OBSTRUCTED_UPDATE)
> svn: E155000: '/home/daniel/src/svn/t1/notes' is already a working copy for a different URL

This would still trigger that error, but one could override it for
situations where traversing beyond the current directory is just not
wanted - for whatever reason. For mortal users, traversing into the
OS domain beyond $HOME is usually not useful anyway, but dragging the
concept of a $HOME directory into subversion is certainly going too
far.

Of course, if considering $HOME as a search boundary sounds really
more reasonable, that entire directory traversal might be made more
flexible. Suppose adding an option --topmost-search-directory, it
could then default to $HOME. *) One could then completely avoid the
traversal by using --topmost-search-directory=., or alternatively,
allow for traversing the entire hierarchy with
--topmost-search-directory=/.

*) Sure, for "modern" root accounts, this would limit all SVN searches
to /root. However, it can be argued that root always needs to know
what she is doing so the entire traversal is not necessary for root. :)

-- 
cheers, Joerg               .-.-.   --... ...--   -.. .  DL8DTL
http://www.sax.de/~joerg/
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)