DO NOT REPLY [Bug 15729] - StarTeam rootLocalFolder should be java.io.File

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http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=15729

StarTeam rootLocalFolder should be java.io.File





------- Additional Comments From scohen@apache.org  2003-09-01 18:46 -------
Now, that at last, I have some free time, I am taking a fresh look at this bug.
 If I may summarize the discussion to this point:

Lee Marlow (supported by Jose Alberto Fernandez) wants the rootlocalfolder
attribute to be set relative to basedir when not specified as an absolute path.
 They point out that this gives more conceptual unity with the rest of ant.

Stefan Bodewig worries that this will break backward compatibility with users
who expect it to be relative to current working directory.

I, Steve Cohen, point out that while backward compatibility will break, Stefan
incorrectly understands part of what current functionality is.  While it is true
that if rootlocalfolder is specified as a relative path, that will currently be
interpreted relative to CWD, there is a further twist that if NO rootlocalfolder
is specified, rlf will be the default local directory stored in starteam.  This
is primarily useful in the StarTeam GUI itself, and losing this functionality in
ant would be no great loss, IMHO.  (It could be remedied by adding yet another
attribute to the task, possibly).  But Stefan is correct, there would still be a
significant backward compatibility issue when relative paths are specified.  I
wasn't thinking about THAT issue at the time of my earlier comments.

However, I am inclined to press forward despite this.  Current functionality is
a mess:
1) if an absolute path is specified, use that.
2) if a relative path is specified, it is relative to CWD
3) if no rootlocalfolder is specified, the starteam default is used.

The problem is that 2 is undocumented (no documentation is provided on what
happens when a relative rootlocalfolder is specified).  Additionally, its lack
of documentation makes it inconsistent with 3.  User is arguably entitled to
assume that not specifying the attribute would be the same as specifying a
relative ".".

In my use cases, it would make no difference.  I always specify rootlocalfolder
as an absolute path (perhaps unconsciously aware of the relative path ambiguity
here).

So what I propose to do is that whenever a relative path is specified, print a
WARNING message indicating that the meaning of this attribute has changed from
what it meant in 1.5.  Something along the lines of

WARNING - a relative rootlocalfolder is now interpreted relative to basedir and
not to the current working directory as it was in Ant versions prior to 1.6.

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