Re: Request: client-to-server environment variables

[Toby Johnson <to...@etjohnson.us>]

Max Bowsher wrote:

> But now you are talking about some kind of generic mechanism for 
> marshalling arbitrary key/value pairs from the client to the hook 
> scripts?
>
> I speak only for myself, not the Subversion developers in general, but 
> my opinion is that this is a horrible idea.
> It destroys the whole principle of "Subversion clients are compatible 
> with Subversion servers", and makes you use a client which happens to 
> support whatever random things the hook scripts have been built to use.

I think you are brushing aside closed shops that wish to build 
applications on top of Subversion. The ability to connect to any client 
which a user happens to be using is not a consideration in these cases; 
in fact, there are many businesses which would want to specifically 
avoid this scenario. They will deploy a particular client (such as TSVN) 
and expect that everyone who accesses the repository uses that client.

However, I only made this suggestion because you seemed to balk at the 
idea of passing a client string to the server in any form, because some 
dastardly admin may use it for evil purposes. Your comment "I agree 
[environment variables] would be a good way to pass arbitrary 
information to hook scripts" seemed to imply that a general mechanism 
for this was more favorable, but I've obviously misinterpreted this.

So, let's take yet another step back. The problem is that a lot of users 
want to know what sorts of clients are connecting to their repository. 
You agree that environment variables may be a suitable mechanism for 
passing this information. So the question that remains is, how does the 
server get this information in the first place? By another (or perhaps 
the same) environment variable set by the client?

> If you are finding the built in Windows scripting tools deficient (and 
> let's face it, they are), then both Python and Perl are well-packaged 
> for Windows.

Yes, I'm aware of and have used both Python and Perl for hook scripts, 
but again you're missing the point here: Python and Perl are not very 
common on Windows servers. Even if you can convince your sysadmin to 
install them, programming a hook script using either of these is not 
exactly trivial, especially given the (lack of) familiarity of typical 
Windows programmers with these tools. It's the difference between making 
something possible and making it easy.

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