Cleaning up tags and branches

[Rush Manbert <ru...@manbert.com>]

I have a repository that was migrated from CVS to SVN with the cvs2svn 
script. During the migration, quite a few branches and tags were created.

Now other people are going to start using the repository, and I have 
been asked whether we can delete the branches and tags created during 
the migration. Being quite paranoid about stuff like that, I said no. 
However, I think that it would be okay to create a new directory 
/branches/cvsBranches and copy everything that is currently in /branches 
to there. I would also create /tags/cvsTags and copy everything 
currently in my tags directory to there.

Nothing currently in /tags or /branches is useful going forward, but 
they helped greatly to set up my vendor source branches after the merge 
and I'm scared to just get rid of them. At the same time, we would like 
to start with "clean" /tags and /branches directories and enforce naming 
conventions for their use.

I don't see any downside to moving the directories as outlined above. 
Does anyone else?

Thanks,
Rush

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Re: Cleaning up tags and branches

[Rush Manbert <ru...@manbert.com>]

Hari Kodungallur wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 2:19 PM, Rush Manbert <ru...@manbert.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>I have a repository that was migrated from CVS to SVN with the cvs2svn
>>script. During the migration, quite a few branches and tags were created.
>>
>>Now other people are going to start using the repository, and I have
>>been asked whether we can delete the branches and tags created during
>>the migration. Being quite paranoid about stuff like that, I said no.
>>However, I think that it would be okay to create a new directory
>>/branches/cvsBranches and copy everything that is currently in /branches
>>to there. I would also create /tags/cvsTags and copy everything
>>currently in my tags directory to there.
>>
>>Nothing currently in /tags or /branches is useful going forward, but
>>they helped greatly to set up my vendor source branches after the merge
>>and I'm scared to just get rid of them. At the same time, we would like
>>to start with "clean" /tags and /branches directories and enforce naming
>>conventions for their use.
>>
>>I don't see any downside to moving the directories as outlined above.
>>Does anyone else?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Please note that when you remove the directories, they are not removed
> forever. They stay in your repository. If you delete the entire tags or
> branches directory and at a future date wish that you wanted to see the
> deleted code, you can go back to the version of the repository before it was
> deleted and revive them.
> 
> You can remove the tags and branches and commit the changes, say revision
> 1000. And you keep on with your development and after revision 5000, you
> want to look at the tags that were deleted. You can just use the
> URL@999syntax to go back to that revision and possibly copy it to a
> new branch or
> check it out as a working copy etc. The only gotcha is: how do you know when
> (which revision) you deleted the tags and branches so that you can go back
> to it. Judicious use of 'svn log' coupled with a good commenting policy
> (clearly indicate in your message what you are deleting and why) can ease
> that pain.
> 
> Alternatively you can also copy the existing tags and branches to
> tags/cvsTags and branches/cvsBranches. From the point of view of the
> repository (size, performance etc), this is pretty much the same as deleting
> the tags and branches.
> 
> Basically, I guess it all depends on what you prefer :-)
> 
> Regards,
> -Hari
> 


Hi Hari and Paul,

Thank you both for your replies. As you have both reminded me, those 
branches and tags aren't ever gone from the repository. I was busy 
examining the trees and neglected to see the forest around me.

It hadn't occurred to me that I could copy a directory across repository 
revision levels, even though I probably read it somewhere. Now I have 
done some experiments and I see that I can delete a tag directory from 
the HEAD, but copy it back to the HEAD (at revision+2 from where I 
started) by browsing the earlier repository revision and copying from 
there. I also see how the command line supports this. I feel much better 
about deleting all those old tags and branches now.

Gosh, now I feel like I should clean off my desk too. Clean out the 
garage at home. Quit using vim in favor of a squeaky new modern GUI 
editor. Well, maybe not the vim thing. ;-)

Thank you both again. Your comments were very helpful.

Best regards,
Rush

P.S. Hari - sorry for the reply just to you. I hit the wrong button.


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Re: Cleaning up tags and branches

[Hari Kodungallur <hk...@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 2:19 PM, Rush Manbert <ru...@manbert.com> wrote:

> I have a repository that was migrated from CVS to SVN with the cvs2svn
> script. During the migration, quite a few branches and tags were created.
>
> Now other people are going to start using the repository, and I have
> been asked whether we can delete the branches and tags created during
> the migration. Being quite paranoid about stuff like that, I said no.
> However, I think that it would be okay to create a new directory
> /branches/cvsBranches and copy everything that is currently in /branches
> to there. I would also create /tags/cvsTags and copy everything
> currently in my tags directory to there.
>
> Nothing currently in /tags or /branches is useful going forward, but
> they helped greatly to set up my vendor source branches after the merge
> and I'm scared to just get rid of them. At the same time, we would like
> to start with "clean" /tags and /branches directories and enforce naming
> conventions for their use.
>
> I don't see any downside to moving the directories as outlined above.
> Does anyone else?



Please note that when you remove the directories, they are not removed
forever. They stay in your repository. If you delete the entire tags or
branches directory and at a future date wish that you wanted to see the
deleted code, you can go back to the version of the repository before it was
deleted and revive them.

You can remove the tags and branches and commit the changes, say revision
1000. And you keep on with your development and after revision 5000, you
want to look at the tags that were deleted. You can just use the
URL@999syntax to go back to that revision and possibly copy it to a
new branch or
check it out as a working copy etc. The only gotcha is: how do you know when
(which revision) you deleted the tags and branches so that you can go back
to it. Judicious use of 'svn log' coupled with a good commenting policy
(clearly indicate in your message what you are deleting and why) can ease
that pain.

Alternatively you can also copy the existing tags and branches to
tags/cvsTags and branches/cvsBranches. From the point of view of the
repository (size, performance etc), this is pretty much the same as deleting
the tags and branches.

Basically, I guess it all depends on what you prefer :-)

Regards,
-Hari

Re: Cleaning up tags and branches

[Paul Koning <Pa...@dell.com>]

>>>>> "Rush" == Rush Manbert <ru...@manbert.com> writes:

 Rush> I have a repository that was migrated from CVS to SVN with the
 Rush> cvs2svn script. During the migration, quite a few branches and
 Rush> tags were created.

 Rush> Now other people are going to start using the repository, and I
 Rush> have been asked whether we can delete the branches and tags
 Rush> created during the migration. Being quite paranoid about stuff
 Rush> like that, I said no.  However, I think that it would be okay
 Rush> to create a new directory /branches/cvsBranches and copy
 Rush> everything that is currently in /branches to there. I would
 Rush> also create /tags/cvsTags and copy everything currently in my
 Rush> tags directory to there.

 Rush> Nothing currently in /tags or /branches is useful going
 Rush> forward, but they helped greatly to set up my vendor source
 Rush> branches after the merge and I'm scared to just get rid of
 Rush> them. At the same time, we would like to start with "clean"
 Rush> /tags and /branches directories and enforce naming conventions
 Rush> for their use.

 Rush> I don't see any downside to moving the directories as outlined
 Rush> above.  Does anyone else?

Sounds fine, but then again, deleting any tags/branches you don't need
is fine, too.  Two reasons for that: the CVS -> SVN conversion process
creates those to capture everything it saw, but it doesn't have any
dependency on them remaining in existence.  And also: as a version
control system, Subversion always lets you go back to any previous
point in history.

      paul


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