Subversion Repository: naturally a single- or multi-Project versioning storage?

[Pietro Moras <st...@hotmail.com>]

Hi,
      Having
to develop two distinct, un-related Projects, I wonder whether it is
sensible to store them both into a unique Subversion Repository, or it is
natural to create two distinct Repositories, each one dedicated to a
unique Project.


In
other words, a Subversion Repository is naturally meant for more than
one, unrelated, independently versioned project, or not?
Thanks.
Yours,
 -
P.M.
 		 	   		  

Re: Subversion Repository: naturally a single- or multi-Project versioning storage?

[Les Mikesell <le...@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 10:47 AM, Pietro Moras <st...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>     Having to develop two distinct, un-related Projects, I wonder whether it
> is sensible to store them both into a unique Subversion Repository, or it is
> natural to create two distinct Repositories, each one dedicated to a unique
> Project.
>
>
> In other words, a Subversion Repository is naturally meant for more than
> one, unrelated, independently versioned project, or not?

It works fine either way and for small projects won't make any
difference.  The trade-offs are that it may be harder to manage
equivalent user permissions across a set of separate repositories and
it will be more cumbersome to svnadmin dump/filter/load a large single
repository when it reaches a point where you need to do maintenance.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell@gmail.com

Re: Subversion Repository: naturally a single- or multi-Project versioning storage?

[Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>]

On Mar 1, 2012, at 10:47, Pietro Moras wrote:

>     Having to develop two distinct, un-related Projects, I wonder whether it is sensible to store them both into a unique Subversion Repository, or it is natural to create two distinct Repositories, each one dedicated to a unique Project.
> 
> In other words, a Subversion Repository is naturally meant for more than one, unrelated, independently versioned project, or not?

You can do it either way. And whether you choose a single repository or multiple repositories today, you can change your mind later: with some effort, a repository can be split, or multiple repositories can be combined.

I myself started with a single repository for all of my programming projects, but in recent years have switched to making a new repository for each project. I find this to be more flexible. For example years ago I wanted to open-source one of my private projects and put it on Google Code; before I could do so, I had to disentangle it from all the other projects in my monolithic repository, using svnadmin dump and svndumpfilter. It would have been easier if it had been in its own repository already. And if a project becomes obsolete, you can move its repository to archive media without impacting your other projects. You'll note this is also how various hosting companies do it: if you make a project on SourceForge or Google Code, you get a new repository just for that project; you don't share a repository containing other people's code.

However, the Apache Foundation, which hosts Subversion's repository, uses a single repository for all projects, and that works too. So it's up to you. 

RE: Subversion Repository: naturally a single- or multi-Project versioning storage?

["Cooke, Mark" <ma...@siemens.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pietro Moras [mailto:studio-pm@hotmail.com] 
> Sent: 01 March 2012 16:47
> Subject: Subversion Repository: naturally a single- or 
> multi-Project versioning storage?
> 
> Hi,
> 
>     Having to develop two distinct, un-related Projects, I 
> wonder whether it is sensible to store them both into a 
> unique Subversion Repository, or it is natural to create two 
> distinct Repositories, each one dedicated to a unique Project.
> 
> 
> In other words, a Subversion Repository is naturally meant 
> for more than one, unrelated, independently versioned project, or not?
> 
> Thanks. Yours,
>  - P.M.
> 
I think this is subject to personal preferences.  So here is mine: separate repos for unrelated stuff.  It may well help in the future if you want to retire some old stuff and keep the rest for example...

Having said that you can work it both ways and having only one repo can (in the early days) simplify regular maintenance.

~ mark c