Windows remote clients

[Simon Gamble <si...@dunkers.co.uk>]

Although I've been using Subversion (via TortoiseSVN) for a little while, it's
been as a single developer. Now I need to set up a system for a multi-developer
workgroup and I'm a bit of a newby at this...

The situation is that there are a couple or so developers connected to a LAN,
and the repository would want to be on a NAS drive (because that's what gets
backed up). It would be tricky to run svnserve on this drive :). All machines
are Windows XP and the repository will use the FSFS format.

So my first query is: can these developers all simultaneously access the
repostitory via normal Windows file shares? The SVN manual suggests this is OK
but only explicitly deals with multiple clients on the same machine.

Next, there will be a remote developer connecting over a slow and possibly
problematic link. Ideally he'd like his own local repository so he doesn't have
to deal with the link too much. Is there a scenario where this could be
achieved? If it makes any difference, each developer would be using their own
branch in the repository for work in progress and then only merging into the
trunk when whatever they're working on is done and working. However, since the
other developers will at times want access to the remote developers work, he
still needs to commit his changes to his branch periodically.



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Re: Windows remote clients

[Simon Gamble <si...@dunkers.co.uk>]

Warren Young <warren <at> etr-usa.com> writes:

> The main trick, I suspect, is file locking.
>

Yes, I think that's what it boils down to. Since no-one seems to know one way or
the other it's probably best to assume it wouldn't work even if it might, if you
see what I mean. And, realistically, the remote guy is going to have to go via
svnserve anyway so we might as well all use it. Hmmm. Bit of a non-question
then, I guess :)

> Perhaps a better solution would be to host the repository on a separate 
> machine, and only store periodic repository dumps on the NAS box.

That bears some thought, but it's getting that other machine available. It's not
so much being able to get a machine per se but having one simply for this -
those sort of things tend to slip under the radar of maintenance and backups and
stuff.

Thanks for the ideas :)



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Re: Windows remote clients

[Warren Young <wa...@etr-usa.com>]

Simon Gamble wrote:
> 
> So far as I know, the only machine guaranteed to be always on is the main
> company server which is overloaded enough to make the remote link look fast :).

Can't you find an old discarded PC to use for this?  If you use a 
stripped-down install of Linux, and you should be able to use quite a 
low-end machine for this.

The main trick, I suspect, is file locking.  I don't know FSFS's locking 
requirements, but a lot of network filesystem implementations do not 
support this very well.  There may also be trouble on the Linux side. 
Say you use SMB to connect to the NAS box...does the Linux kernel smbfs 
implementation support the necessary locking semantics?

Again, I don't know the answers.  Just trying to help you find the right 
questions.

Perhaps a better solution would be to host the repository on a separate 
machine, and only store periodic repository dumps on the NAS box.  A 
little scripting and a cron job or two and this will run itself.

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Re: Windows remote clients

[Simon Gamble <si...@dunkers.co.uk>]

Martin Tomes <lists <at> tomes.org> writes:

> 
> Simon Gamble wrote:
> >It would be tricky to run svnserve on this drive :). 
> 
> How about running the server on a single machine which has access to the 
> drive.
> 

So far as I know, the only machine guaranteed to be always on is the main
company server which is overloaded enough to make the remote link look fast :).
It's an option, but not a preferred one.



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Re: Windows remote clients

[Martin Tomes <li...@tomes.org>]

Simon Gamble wrote:
> Although I've been using Subversion (via TortoiseSVN) for a little while, it's
> been as a single developer. Now I need to set up a system for a multi-developer
> workgroup and I'm a bit of a newby at this...
> 
> The situation is that there are a couple or so developers connected to a LAN,
> and the repository would want to be on a NAS drive (because that's what gets
> backed up). It would be tricky to run svnserve on this drive :). 

How about running the server on a single machine which has access to the 
drive.

-- 
Martin Tomes
echo 'martin at tomes x org x uk'\
  | sed -e 's/ x /\./g' -e 's/ at /@/'

Visit http://www.subversionary.org/

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