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Posted to users@subversion.apache.org by Mark Clements <nn...@kennel17.co.uk> on 2006/08/12 18:38:39 UTC
Do externals break if server moves?
Hi,
I am in the process of setting up my first SVN repository, to handle
multiple projects that we are working on (some connected, others completely
separate). I was planning to use a separate repository for each project,
with 'externals' folders to share resources where necessary.
For example, I might have the following 2 repositories
/repos/Project1/
/repos/PHPLib/
In Project1 I would have a folder /repos/Project1/trunk/PHPLib which is an
external reference to http://mydomain.com/repos/PHPLib/branches/1.0, so we
would be using the head of the v1 branch of the libarary at all times. When
tags are created within Project1, this external in the tag would be modified
to point to a specific revision of the library so that further changes to
the library do not affect the tagged version.
However, it occurs to me that if we move domains (e.g. to mydomain2.com)
then all these old links will be broken! Is there anyway to avoid this,
e.g. to use relative links, or to edit historical data after a change
(without creating new revisions). I want to be sure that if we need to
build Project1 v1.0 in a couple of years (possibly having moved servers)
that all the necessary files are still available and are from the correct
version.
- Mark Clements
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Re: Do externals break if server moves?
Posted by John Waycott <ja...@cox.net>.
Mark Clements wrote:
> "Hari Kodungallur" <hk...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:71907dd90608121332k3d4d1631x99eef3eb0cd7cc8e@mail.gmail.com...
> On 8/12/06, Ryan Schmidt <subversion-2006c@ryandesign.com > wrote:
> On Aug 12, 2006, at 20:38, Mark Clements wrote:
>
>> However, it occurs to me that if we move domains (e.g. to
>> mydomain2.com)
>> then all these old links will be broken! Is there anyway to avoid
>> this,
>> e.g. to use relative links, or to edit historical data after a change
>> (without creating new revisions). I want to be sure that if we
>> need to
>> build Project1 v1.0 in a couple of years (possibly having moved
>> servers)
>> that all the necessary files are still available and are from the
>> correct
>> version.
>>
> You are correct, externals will break if the URL to the repository
> changes. I am not aware of a way to avoid this. I do not know if you
> can easily edit it after the fact, for example by editing the output
> of svnadmin dump. Subversion does not support relative paths in
> external definitions yet; it's an open feature request. Suggest that
> if you change URLs, you then visit all projects where you've used
> externals and update the definitions. Also suggest you pick a URL now
> that's unlikely to need to change. (For example, pick a new hostname
> like svn.example.com, even if you're currently hosting it on the same
> machine as other things; this way you can break it off onto a
> separate machine later should you wish to do so.) This also includes
> deciding what server protocol you're going to use.
>
> Ideally we would like to have the externals point to a relative path or be
> able to edit the external at the server if the server moves. But until then,
> you can checkout without externals (--ignore-externals), edit the
> svn:externals and check-in changes, right?
> ------------------
>
>
> The way I understand it, that will update the head, but old revisions will
> still be broken. Is it possible to use a file:// URL which points to a
> directory that can include the tilde (~) home-dir symbol (e.g.
> file://~/repos/etc), or alternatively to a sym-linked directory (e.g.
> file://home/me/repos/symlinks/etc where ~/repos/symlinks/etc points to
> ~/repos/etc) so that it can be repointed if the server structure changes.
>
I brought this up in another thread recently, that a level of
redirection might be a solution. You could have a repository that is
just a list of projects and their associated SVN repository location.
The client would only need to know where the list of projects resides.
The svn:externals property could be something like
project://ExternalProjectA/tags/v1.1. The value 'ExternalProjectA' would
be substituted with the actual path from the project list database.
Another way could be to create a property at the root of a repository
that is your list of external projects, and use a variable substitution
scheme in svn:externals. For example, suppose you create at the root of
your project repository a property called svn:externalprojects with
these lines:
lib1 http://svn.mycompany.com/libs/lib1
lib2 http://svn.mycompany.com/libs/lib2
This says your project uses two external libraries called lib1 and lib2.
The svn:externals property in a directory in your project might look like:
lib1 $lib1/tags/1.1
When svn:externals sees the '$', it would look up lib1 in
svn:externalprojects. It would then do a parameter substitution to get
http://svn.mycompany.com/libs/lib1/tags/1.1.
I'm sure there are better ways to do this and not having really looked
at the Subversion code I don't know if this is feasible or not, but this
was my first thought.
-- John Waycott
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Re: Do externals break if server moves?
Posted by Mark Clements <nn...@kennel17.co.uk>.
"Hari Kodungallur" <hk...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:71907dd90608121332k3d4d1631x99eef3eb0cd7cc8e@mail.gmail.com...
On 8/12/06, Ryan Schmidt <subversion-2006c@ryandesign.com > wrote:
On Aug 12, 2006, at 20:38, Mark Clements wrote:
> However, it occurs to me that if we move domains (e.g. to
> mydomain2.com)
> then all these old links will be broken! Is there anyway to avoid
> this,
> e.g. to use relative links, or to edit historical data after a change
> (without creating new revisions). I want to be sure that if we
> need to
> build Project1 v1.0 in a couple of years (possibly having moved
> servers)
> that all the necessary files are still available and are from the
> correct
> version.
You are correct, externals will break if the URL to the repository
changes. I am not aware of a way to avoid this. I do not know if you
can easily edit it after the fact, for example by editing the output
of svnadmin dump. Subversion does not support relative paths in
external definitions yet; it's an open feature request. Suggest that
if you change URLs, you then visit all projects where you've used
externals and update the definitions. Also suggest you pick a URL now
that's unlikely to need to change. (For example, pick a new hostname
like svn.example.com, even if you're currently hosting it on the same
machine as other things; this way you can break it off onto a
separate machine later should you wish to do so.) This also includes
deciding what server protocol you're going to use.
Ideally we would like to have the externals point to a relative path or be
able to edit the external at the server if the server moves. But until then,
you can checkout without externals (--ignore-externals), edit the
svn:externals and check-in changes, right?
------------------
The way I understand it, that will update the head, but old revisions will
still be broken. Is it possible to use a file:// URL which points to a
directory that can include the tilde (~) home-dir symbol (e.g.
file://~/repos/etc), or alternatively to a sym-linked directory (e.g.
file://home/me/repos/symlinks/etc where ~/repos/symlinks/etc points to
~/repos/etc) so that it can be repointed if the server structure changes.
- Mark Clements
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Re: Do externals break if server moves?
Posted by Hari Kodungallur <hk...@gmail.com>.
On 8/12/06, Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Aug 12, 2006, at 20:38, Mark Clements wrote:
>
> > However, it occurs to me that if we move domains (e.g. to
> > mydomain2.com)
> > then all these old links will be broken! Is there anyway to avoid
> > this,
> > e.g. to use relative links, or to edit historical data after a change
> > (without creating new revisions). I want to be sure that if we
> > need to
> > build Project1 v1.0 in a couple of years (possibly having moved
> > servers)
> > that all the necessary files are still available and are from the
> > correct
> > version.
>
> You are correct, externals will break if the URL to the repository
> changes. I am not aware of a way to avoid this. I do not know if you
> can easily edit it after the fact, for example by editing the output
> of svnadmin dump. Subversion does not support relative paths in
> external definitions yet; it's an open feature request. Suggest that
> if you change URLs, you then visit all projects where you've used
> externals and update the definitions. Also suggest you pick a URL now
> that's unlikely to need to change. (For example, pick a new hostname
> like svn.example.com, even if you're currently hosting it on the same
> machine as other things; this way you can break it off onto a
> separate machine later should you wish to do so.) This also includes
> deciding what server protocol you're going to use.
>
>
Ideally we would like to have the externals point to a relative path or be
able to edit the external at the server if the server moves. But until then,
you can checkout without externals (--ignore-externals), edit the
svn:externals and check-in changes, right?
--
-Hari Kodungallur
SpikeSource Inc.
http://developer.spikesource.com
Re: Do externals break if server moves?
Posted by Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>.
On Aug 12, 2006, at 20:38, Mark Clements wrote:
> However, it occurs to me that if we move domains (e.g. to
> mydomain2.com)
> then all these old links will be broken! Is there anyway to avoid
> this,
> e.g. to use relative links, or to edit historical data after a change
> (without creating new revisions). I want to be sure that if we
> need to
> build Project1 v1.0 in a couple of years (possibly having moved
> servers)
> that all the necessary files are still available and are from the
> correct
> version.
You are correct, externals will break if the URL to the repository
changes. I am not aware of a way to avoid this. I do not know if you
can easily edit it after the fact, for example by editing the output
of svnadmin dump. Subversion does not support relative paths in
external definitions yet; it's an open feature request. Suggest that
if you change URLs, you then visit all projects where you've used
externals and update the definitions. Also suggest you pick a URL now
that's unlikely to need to change. (For example, pick a new hostname
like svn.example.com, even if you're currently hosting it on the same
machine as other things; this way you can break it off onto a
separate machine later should you wish to do so.) This also includes
deciding what server protocol you're going to use.
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