svn --recursive and externals

[Lorenz <lo...@yahoo.com>]

Hi all,

looks like "svn --recursive ..." ignors externals.

Is this intended?

I don't seem to be able to find any documentation about the it.
Either there is none, or my seach skills are lacking badly.
-- 

Lorenz

Re: svn --recursive and externals

[Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>]

On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 07:54:04AM +0000, Lorenz wrote:
> 'svn help pg' on the other hand doen't gives not infomation about
> externals at all, and it rejects '--include-externals'.
> So no recursing into externals with 'svn propget' at all 8-(

Yes, propset/propget/proplist are a bit tricky.

For example, what would happen if --include-externals was combined with
the --revprop option? Keep in mind that SVN requires:
"Must specify the revision as a number, a date or 'HEAD' when operating
on a revision property"

So what should happen if the user asks for a revprop recursively, and there
are several repositories (with distinct revision number spaces) to query?
What if -r NUMBER was also given? What if -r HEAD was given? Should the
--include-externals and --revprop options be entirely mutually exclusive?

That's one (of possibly) many questions that need to be asked before
implementing such behaviour. It takes time to come up with a good design
that interacts well with other existing command options. Recursing into
externals is non-trivial to implement and has not been done everywhere.

In scripts, you can work around this by finding all externals with
'svn status' first, and then calling propget on each.

Re: svn --recursive and externals

[Lorenz <lo...@yahoo.com>]

Stefan Sperling wrote:
>On Wed, Nov 16, 2016 at 02:22:53PM +0000, Lorenz wrote:
>> looks like "svn --recursive ..." ignors externals.
>> 
>> Is this intended?
>
>Look for --ignore-externals or --include-externals options in the
>output of 'svn help SUBCOMMAND', where SUBCOMMAND is whichever
>svn command you're trying to use.
>
>Some subcommands recurse into externals by default, and some don't.
>The decision about which should be the default usually involves tradeoffs
>between several use cases so there is no single rule for this.
>
>> I don't seem to be able to find any documentation about the it.
>> Either there is none, or my seach skills are lacking badly.
>
>There is some information in the book about this at
>http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.advanced.externals.html
>
>And of course in 'svn help'.

Ah well, 'svn help list' shows '--include-externals' as an option, but
thats the only hint it does not recurse into externals by default.

'svn help pg' on the other hand doen't gives not infomation about
externals at all, and it rejects '--include-externals'.
So no recursing into externals with 'svn propget' at all 8-(
-- 

Lorenz

Re: svn --recursive and externals

[Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>]

On Wed, Nov 16, 2016 at 02:22:53PM +0000, Lorenz wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> looks like "svn --recursive ..." ignors externals.
> 
> Is this intended?

Look for --ignore-externals or --include-externals options in the
output of 'svn help SUBCOMMAND', where SUBCOMMAND is whichever
svn command you're trying to use.

Some subcommands recurse into externals by default, and some don't.
The decision about which should be the default usually involves tradeoffs
between several use cases so there is no single rule for this.

> I don't seem to be able to find any documentation about the it.
> Either there is none, or my seach skills are lacking badly.

There is some information in the book about this at
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.advanced.externals.html

And of course in 'svn help'.