Feature request: optional `Pristine Copies`

[Reinoud Zandijk <re...@13thmonkey.org>]

Dear folks,

i'd like to request a new feature for svn; the option to specify for a 
directory if it should be backed up with `pristine copies' or not i.e. 
forcing a network access for the pristine one.

I'd love to see an `svn online' that fetches pristine copies of all the 
files (or copies them if found not altered) recursively for the current or 
specified local repository and its counter `svn offline' that removes all 
the pristine copies recursively for the current or specified local 
repository.

This to facilitate huge repositories of around say 2+Gb with lots of source 
files say 200000 files. Having an extra 2+Gb of disc space (and 200000 
inodes!) only for a `pristine copy' for the occasional time one works 
offline is very heavy; especially for older or smaller machines.

By being able to fetch or purge selective subdirectories in the repository 
that can significantly be reduced and the tradeoff between network fetching 
and local storage can then be chosen at will. If a pristine file is not 
present while working offline when the user asks for f.e. a diff then the 
user could just be notified that the copy is not yet present and inform of 
the `online/offline' switch. Or let the user use a kind of `svn edit' 
command that makes sure that the current file has a backup file in the 
repository (that may not be pristine, but an aproximation). On online 
operation this file could then be replaced by a pristine one.

Thoughts?

With regards,
Reinoud

Re: Feature request: optional `Pristine Copies`

[Reinoud Zandijk <re...@13thmonkey.org>]

On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 02:53:59PM -0600, Hyrum K. Wright wrote:
> > Thoughts?
> 
> See issue #525: http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=525
> 
> The idea of optional text-bases has been around for a while, but there
> hasn't been much work done on it, mainly because the current working
> copy library is such a mess.  Several developers are spec'ing out a new
> working copy library, which would have optional text-bases as one of the
> design requirements.  Although not available initially, it would make
> implementing such a feature much more easier (and likely).
> 
> Does this match what you are looking for?

Well a lot! It doesn't reflect the explicit commands i proposed for 
fetching/purging but there are nice ideas there yes. What i would dislike 
is specifying an option explicitly on each command. A single option for 
checkout would do enough; or checking out by default without a pristine 
working copy. SVN could then report that pieces that are to be worked on 
offline need to be processed first with an `svn offline' or the like; the 
freshly checked out tree could also then be marked read-only and be 
unlocked by the `svn offline' command to prevent accidental modification.

With regards,
Reinoud

Re: Feature request: optional `Pristine Copies`

["Hyrum K. Wright" <hy...@mail.utexas.edu>]

Reinoud Zandijk wrote:
> Dear folks,
> 
> i'd like to request a new feature for svn; the option to specify for a 
> directory if it should be backed up with `pristine copies' or not i.e. 
> forcing a network access for the pristine one.
> 
> I'd love to see an `svn online' that fetches pristine copies of all the 
> files (or copies them if found not altered) recursively for the current or 
> specified local repository and its counter `svn offline' that removes all 
> the pristine copies recursively for the current or specified local 
> repository.
> 
> This to facilitate huge repositories of around say 2+Gb with lots of source 
> files say 200000 files. Having an extra 2+Gb of disc space (and 200000 
> inodes!) only for a `pristine copy' for the occasional time one works 
> offline is very heavy; especially for older or smaller machines.
> 
> By being able to fetch or purge selective subdirectories in the repository 
> that can significantly be reduced and the tradeoff between network fetching 
> and local storage can then be chosen at will. If a pristine file is not 
> present while working offline when the user asks for f.e. a diff then the 
> user could just be notified that the copy is not yet present and inform of 
> the `online/offline' switch. Or let the user use a kind of `svn edit' 
> command that makes sure that the current file has a backup file in the 
> repository (that may not be pristine, but an aproximation). On online 
> operation this file could then be replaced by a pristine one.
> 
> Thoughts?

See issue #525: http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=525

The idea of optional text-bases has been around for a while, but there
hasn't been much work done on it, mainly because the current working
copy library is such a mess.  Several developers are spec'ing out a new
working copy library, which would have optional text-bases as one of the
design requirements.  Although not available initially, it would make
implementing such a feature much more easier (and likely).

Does this match what you are looking for?

-Hyrum