Bert Huijben wrote: > you could just use > assert(svn_relpath_is_canonical(base_relpath)); for a debug only check. (or > SVN_ERR_ASSERT() if you also want to slow down release versions)
The policy is: always use 'SVN_ERR_ASSERT' rather than 'assert' (in functions that return svn_error_t). Of course he doesn't "want to slow down" Subversion. The choice between 'assert' and 'SVN_ERR_ASSERT' should be based on whether we want an application program to be able to catch such a failure. We long ago decided that the answer is YES we do want to write our library functions in such a way that an application can catch an assertion failure if its author chooses to do so. SVN_ERR_ASSERT was introduces to fulfil that need. There isn't currently an easy build switch (such as NDEBUG) to disable SVN_ERR_ASSERT completely at compile time. That's just a side issue. If you want such a switch, just ask; we can easily create one. Or if you think we need two levels of assertions -- one for quick tests and another for slow tests -- and want to be able to compile-out the slow ones independently of the quick ones, just ask. But implying we should use 'assert' for slow tests and 'SVN_ERR_ASSERT' for quick tests is the Wrong Way. - Julian
