On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 10:51 AM, Zé <jose.pas...@gmx.com> wrote: > On 05/18/2013 09:16 PM, Johan Corveleyn wrote: >> >> So what's the actual problem (or problems) with SVN's branching and >> tagging? Where does it hurt your workflow? What would make SVN not >> "hurt you" in that way? >> >> Please be concrete, and give examples of what really bothers you as a >> user or an admin in your daily work. Saying that "branches are not >> first class", or "I don't like it that Subversion implements >> branches/tags by copying directories" are too abstract, and really not >> relevant. Why should I care how SVN implements its branches >> internally, as long as it works for the use cases I need? > > > This has already been repeated multiple times. Didn't you followed the > thread?
Of course I read it, but it's very hard to find the real points buried in the thread, in between all the abstract unsubstantiated talk. > Again, the problem is that subversion does not support branches or tags. > All it supports is basic file operations on a file system, and they are not > adequate for simulating branches or tags. > > here's a small, concrete, reproducible example. > > 1) Create a brand new repository: > > $ svnadmin create /tmp/repository > > > 2) Set the repo initial layout: > > $ svn mkdir branches tags trunk > > > 3) Populate the trunk: > > $ svn checkout file:///tmp/repository working_copy > $ cd working_copy/trunk > $ touch main.c > $ svn add main.c > $ svn commit -m "Initial import" > > > 4) Start a feature branch by copying the trunk directory to a dedicated > subdirectory: > > $ svn copy file:///tmp/repository/trunk > file:///tmp/repository/branches/awesome_feature > > > 5) Work on the feature: > > $ svn checkout file:///tmp/repository/branches/awesome_feature/ feature > $ cd feature > $ touch good_idea_but_undoable.c > $ svn add good_idea_but_undoable.c > $ svn commit -m "This is a dead-end development branch, doomed to be a > complete waste of developer's time" > > > 6) Delete a development branch subdirectory: > > $ svn delete file:///tmp/repository/branches/awesome_feature > > > 7) This is the problem: > > $ svn checkout --revision 3 file:///tmp/repository/branches wc > $ cd wc && tree > > ze@ubuntu:wc$ tree > . > └── awesome_feature > ├── good_idea_but_undoable.c > └── main.c > > 1 directory, 2 files > Thanks for spelling out the single thing that bothers you in SVN's branching implementation. Again: I don't care about the religious point about SVN implementing its branches with (cheap) copies ... whatever. So you want that branches/tags are completely gone without a trace when you're done with them? Why? To save disk space or something? To hide secrets? I consider this so not a problem. On the contrary, this is an important feature of subversion: never ever lose anything that has ever been committed (okay, there's the long-standing request for an obliterate feature in case you really want something gone ... but that's completely orthogonal to branches and tags). What's the problem with awesome_feature remaining available from history? One day, someone remembers this awesome feature that didn't work out at the time: "Hey, do you remember how we implemented that? I'd like to take a look at that (historic) attempt and see if we can apply it to mega_awesome_feature." -- Johan
