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Posted to users@subversion.apache.org by Michael Mattox <mi...@verideon.com> on 2004/03/21 08:56:55 UTC
Editing binary files without locks / reserved checkouts
I am hoping to use SubVersion on a new project where we will be storing our
source code and documents (Word, Excel, Visio) in our repository. So far
I've been working hard to convince the team we should use SubVersion instead
of CVS. I'm really stuck on the reserved checkout issue. I have read many
of the discussions on this issue in the mailing list archives and I agree
that for source code, reserved checkouts are not necessary. However for
binary files such as Word documents, I can't see any way to work around the
problem of two people modifying the same document at the same time. I know
it has been decided not to include reserved checkouts in release 1.0, and
I'm happy to see it's planned for a future release. I'm curious what the
status is (I read issue 533 but unfortunately it won't let me vote or add a
comment. The last comment is from 2002! I'm afraid the people who need
reserved checkouts have given up on this issue.
Also is there a work-a-round? Our project has a lot of word documentation
and if we can't prevent two people from modifying the same file at the same
time we will be forced to use CVS. That would be a real shame! ;)
Regards,
Michael
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Re: Editing binary files without locks / reserved checkouts
Posted by "C. Michael Pilato" <cm...@collab.net>.
"Michael Mattox" <mi...@verideon.com> writes:
> > > Also is there a work-a-round?
> >
> > You can always use properties, and a pre-commit step that rejects
> > commits to files which have "locked" property set.
>
> It's more complicated than that because I want to prevent people from
> modifying binary files which are "locked". At commit time it's too late,
> someone may have done an hour of changes on the file. I understand the
> developers of SVN are against file locking, but when a lot of users are
> requesting it, and even refusing to use SVN until it has locking, I really
> think it should be a higher priority.
This statement is an unfair characterization of Subversion developers.
I believe it is safe to say that, yes, we believe that concurrent
development models and high communication levels are crucial to the
success any collaborative development environment. But many (if not
all) of us also understand the benefits of a locking system -- that
such a system does sacrifice concurrency, but does so to enhance
communication.
Subversion *will have* support for some form of locking.
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RE: Editing binary files without locks / reserved checkouts
Posted by Michael Mattox <mi...@verideon.com>.
> > Also is there a work-a-round?
>
> You can always use properties, and a pre-commit step that rejects
> commits to files which have "locked" property set.
It's more complicated than that because I want to prevent people from
modifying binary files which are "locked". At commit time it's too late,
someone may have done an hour of changes on the file. I understand the
developers of SVN are against file locking, but when a lot of users are
requesting it, and even refusing to use SVN until it has locking, I really
think it should be a higher priority.
> Agreed, but are you REALLY prepared to get all the problems of CVS, in
> exchange for _one_ feature which:
>
> - is easily fixed by people talking to eachother/coordination
> - isn't really guaranteed to work in CVS
I hate CVS. But I don't see many options. Also complicating the fact is
that there is not yet a SVN integration with WebSphere Studio (WSAD) but
that's just a question of time.
> Note, that for binary files in CVS:
>
> - commit time is linear in the size of ALL previous versions of the
> file. Trust me, this is going to be a problem with just a few edits of
> word-files.
> - tagging is linear in the size of ALL the versions that EVER existed
> of all the files tagged
I've used CVS with word files and haven't seen this but it was on a small
project. And the file locking did work, using WinCVS.
Michael
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Re: Editing binary files without locks / reserved checkouts
Posted by Helge Jensen <je...@slog.dk>.
Michael Mattox wrote:
> Also is there a work-a-round?
You can always use properties, and a pre-commit step that rejects
commits to files which have "locked" property set.
> Our project has a lot of word documentation
> and if we can't prevent two people from modifying the same file at the same
> time we will be forced to use CVS. That would be a real shame! ;)
Agreed, but are you REALLY prepared to get all the problems of CVS, in
exchange for _one_ feature which:
- is easily fixed by people talking to eachother/coordination
- isn't really guaranteed to work in CVS
Note, that for binary files in CVS:
- commit time is linear in the size of ALL previous versions of the
file. Trust me, this is going to be a problem with just a few edits of
word-files.
- tagging is linear in the size of ALL the versions that EVER existed
of all the files tagged
--
Helge
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