Importing/Managing directory trees that contain special block/character device files

["Marler, Gordon" <Go...@lehman.com>]

Apparently, the issue of importing block/character device files, among
other special files has been discussed previously
(http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=20119),
but rejected as having security implications.  Since the mentioned
thread took place in 2004, has this stance changed?

I have a use case for them, and am looking either for direct support for
importing such files into an SVN repository, or some indirect method of
managing them in SVN, like having a hook-script/trigger create a cpio
archive of the containing directory on checkin, and an extract of the
archive upon checkout.

The use case here is trying to version control multiple copies of an OS
image.  A portion of the OS image in each case is a "miniroot", that is
directly bootable over the network, and thus contains block/character
device files.  Patches can be applied over time to this "miniroot", so
there is a need to create a tag for each patch application, so we can
check out the proper variant of any particular OS image on network
installations servers as needed.

Can anyone suggest a direct/indirect solution to this use case?

Gordon Marler
gmarler@lehman.com
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Re: Importing/Managing directory trees that contain special block/character device files

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

On Sep 26, 2007, at 11:31, Marler, Gordon wrote:

> Apparently, the issue of importing block/character device files, among
> other special files has been discussed previously
> (http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ReadMsg? 
> list=users&msgNo=20119),
> but rejected as having security implications.  Since the mentioned
> thread took place in 2004, has this stance changed?

I don't think this has changed at all.

> I have a use case for them, and am looking either for direct  
> support for
> importing such files into an SVN repository, or some indirect  
> method of
> managing them in SVN, like having a hook-script/trigger create a cpio
> archive of the containing directory on checkin, and an extract of the
> archive upon checkout.

It sounds like you're looking for a script to run automatically on  
the client side at checkout, update, export, commit times. But  
Subversion hooks don't do that. Rather, they run automatically on the  
server. The pre-commit hook also can't change the transaction that's  
in the incoming transaction, and there are no pre-checkout or pre- 
update or pre-export hooks. So Subversion hooks won't help you here.

> The use case here is trying to version control multiple copies of  
> an OS
> image.  A portion of the OS image in each case is a "miniroot",  
> that is
> directly bootable over the network, and thus contains block/character
> device files.  Patches can be applied over time to this "miniroot", so
> there is a need to create a tag for each patch application, so we can
> check out the proper variant of any particular OS image on network
> installations servers as needed.
>
> Can anyone suggest a direct/indirect solution to this use case?

You would have to create the normal file archive manually before  
putting it in Subversion, and un-archive it after you take it out of  
Subversion. You can write scripts to automate this, but Subversion  
won't call them for you.


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