unifying multiple files and their log messages

[Doug Porter <ds...@waterspout.com>]

It occurred to me the other day that it would be useful to be
able to unify multiple files and their log messages into a single
file with Subversion.  I ran the idea by a colleague, and he
agreed so here is my thought...

Occasionally one might run into a situation where they have two
or more files they would like to combine into one.  Ideally the
log messages from the original files would be incorporated into
the history of the combined file, but with CVS and Subversion
that is currently not possible.

An example of how this could be useful can be made with the
access.conf, httpd.conf, and srm.conf Apache configuration files.
Assume that someone has worked on, and kept individually, the
three files for a period of time.  If they decided to combine
them into a single httpd.conf the current options open to them do
not seem very elegant.

I would imagine the new unification steps would begin by someone
combining the files by hand.  Simply concatenating the files or
something like that will not be sufficient in many cases.  After
the files have been manually combined the user could run a unify
command and then commit their changes.  How things are handled
past this point I am not sure of...  What seems important to me
is the ability to represent via svn log, or whatever, the various
changes that were made to the data before it was all in one file.

Thoughts, suggestions?

-- 
Doug Porter <ds...@waterspout.com>

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Re: unifying multiple files and their log messages

[Branko Čibej <br...@xbc.nu>]

Ben Collins-Sussman wrote:

>Philip Martin <ph...@codematters.co.uk> writes:
>
>  
>
>>>still a merge in my book. And merge should carry the possibility for
>>>displaying log messages from the merged source as well - like is
>>>planned.
>>>      
>>>
>>I agree, this looks like a case of storing merge history.  ClearCase
>>also stores merge history.  It usually happens automatically when you
>>merge a file, but there are also commands to manually add and remove
>>merge history without merging the file contents.  These commands just
>>manipulate the meta-data.
>>    
>>
>
>cmpilato and I were discussing this yesterday.  Assuming that someday
>we record merge history by adding information to certain
>properties... then someday 'svn log' could also learn to parse those
>properties and show log messages for the merged history as well.
>  
>

Well, well, well. There used to be a time when I proposed "svn join", 
that would do exactly that -- join revision histories (from two branches 
or two separate nodes). And got jumped on "because that's the same as a 
merge + delete". Just like move is copy+delete, which we're regretting now.

Heh heh. Sooner or later they always realize that I was right all the 
time. Go me! :-)

-- 
Brane Čibej   <br...@xbc.nu>   http://www.xbc.nu/brane/


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Re: unifying multiple files and their log messages

[Ben Collins-Sussman <su...@collab.net>]

Philip Martin <ph...@codematters.co.uk> writes:

> > still a merge in my book. And merge should carry the possibility for
> > displaying log messages from the merged source as well - like is
> > planned.
> 
> I agree, this looks like a case of storing merge history.  ClearCase
> also stores merge history.  It usually happens automatically when you
> merge a file, but there are also commands to manually add and remove
> merge history without merging the file contents.  These commands just
> manipulate the meta-data.

cmpilato and I were discussing this yesterday.  Assuming that someday
we record merge history by adding information to certain
properties... then someday 'svn log' could also learn to parse those
properties and show log messages for the merged history as well.


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Re: unifying multiple files and their log messages

[Philip Martin <ph...@codematters.co.uk>]

Nuutti Kotivuori <na...@iki.fi> writes:

> Doug Porter wrote:
> > It occurred to me the other day that it would be useful to be
> > able to unify multiple files and their log messages into a single
> > file with Subversion.  I ran the idea by a colleague, and he
> > agreed so here is my thought...
> 
> [...]
> 
> > Thoughts, suggestions?
> 
> Even though the command and semantics are a bit different - this is
> still a merge in my book. And merge should carry the possibility for
> displaying log messages from the merged source as well - like is
> planned.

I agree, this looks like a case of storing merge history.  ClearCase
also stores merge history.  It usually happens automatically when you
merge a file, but there are also commands to manually add and remove
merge history without merging the file contents.  These commands just
manipulate the meta-data.

-- 
Philip Martin

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Re: unifying multiple files and their log messages

[Nuutti Kotivuori <na...@iki.fi>]

Doug Porter wrote:
> It occurred to me the other day that it would be useful to be
> able to unify multiple files and their log messages into a single
> file with Subversion.  I ran the idea by a colleague, and he
> agreed so here is my thought...

[...]

> Thoughts, suggestions?

Even though the command and semantics are a bit different - this is
still a merge in my book. And merge should carry the possibility for
displaying log messages from the merged source as well - like is
planned.

I've thought about this too - and if splitting a file into two comes
with 'cp' and then removing the irrelevant parts from both files,
merging could come with some other command, and then the user mangles
the file into decent proportions again. Sounds good - doesn't sound
like a too big of a thing to make.

-- Naked


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