Branko Čibej wrote on Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 13:41:34 +0100: > On 29.11.2012 12:46, Eric S. Raymond wrote: > > Daniel Shahaf <danie...@elego.de>: > >>> Subversion's metadata doesn't have separate author and committer > >>> properties, and doesn't store anything but a Unix user ID as > >>> attribution. I don't see any way around this. > >> You're not fully informed, then. > >> > >> 1) svn:author revprops can contain any UTF-8 string. They are not > >> restricted to Unix user id's. (For example, they can contain full > >> names, if the administrator so chooses.) > > Right. At one point during the development of this feature I was > > accidentally storing the full email field in this property. So I > > already knew that this is allowed at some level. > > > > And, I have no trouble believing that svn log will cheerfully echo > > anything that I choose to stuff in that field. > > > > But... > > > > (1) How much work would it be it to set up a Subversion installation > > so that when I svn commit, the tool does the right thing, e.g. puts > > a DVCS-style fullname/email string in there? > > I don't know how common that practice is, but I've worked on a project > where svn:author was filled in from the DN and e-mail attributes of an > X-509 certificate. It's also quite easy to set svn:author from > information stored in LDAP (that is, if you find anything about LDAP > actually easy). >
Another option is to change the svn:author prop in the pre-commit hook. > > RFC: If I wrote a patch that let Subversion users set their own > > content string for the author field in ~/.subversion/config, would > > you merge it? Because I'd totally write that. > > Hint: svn commit --with-revprop svn:author="Twizzle Strongpants > <ts@interwebs>" > > I personally wouldn't mind if that were a user preference in the config > file. It'd have to be a per-server config option, however; and even > better, per-repository, which is a concept that the Subversion config > file does not currently support. (There's a reason why I put my ID into > .git/config, not ~/.gitconfig.) > > Note that it's up to the server administrator to actually allow clients > to set svn:author (and any other revision property). The assumed, and > most common, configuration is that the server derives svn:author from > authentication information. > Specifically, the server code special-cases svn:author and svn:date --- an administrator would have to use a pre-commit hook (or patch the server) to avoid those being set from the authentication info and system clock. > [...] > > >> You might also seek community consensus to reserve an svn:foo name for > >> the "original author" property --- perhaps svn:original-author --- so > >> that reposurgeon and other git->svn tools can interoperate in the way > >> they transfer the "original author" information. > > OK. But I like the idea of letting the users set their own author > > content string better. Instead of another layer of kluges, why > > shouldn't Subversion join the DVCSes in the happy land of > > Internet-scoped attributions? > > This discussion has come up before. Today, the assumption that > svn:author is something that the server has verified (modulo admins' > shenanigans) is pretty much cast in concrete. > > I'm open to suggestions, up to and including breaking that assumption, > though obviously I'd prefer not to. > > -- Brane > > > -- > Branko Čibej > Director of Subversion | WANdisco | www.wandisco.com >
