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Posted to users@subversion.apache.org by Mark Cimini <m....@att.net> on 2008/05/30 13:33:26 UTC

Can subversion be used tocontrol a shared directory?

Hello,

    I was wondering if Subversion has been used to source code control 
of a shared subdirectory among users?  Basically a disk is NFS'ed and a 
small team shares the development subdirectory.  I'd like subversion to 
occasionally go in an capture the state of the tree.  Reasons include 
that some COTS tools do not lend themselves to the standard SCC model.  
These tools usually think of the development space as there own.  Also 
some development is R&D where there is "architecture on the fly." 

    Any pointers to how others have dealt with this or what proper terms 
to use when describing this?

Mark

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Re: Can subversion be used tocontrol a shared directory?

Posted by Steve Carter <pu...@soycarretero.com>.
Quoting Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>:
>
> On May 30, 2008, at 08:33, Mark Cimini wrote:
>
>>   I was wondering if Subversion has been used to source code   
>> control of a shared subdirectory among users?  Basically a disk is   
>> NFS'ed and a small team shares the development subdirectory.  I'd   
>> like subversion to occasionally go in an capture the state of the   
>> tree.

> Do not do this when using Subversion. Doing so is prone to problems and
> negates many of the advantages of using Subversion (or any version
> control system). Read the book for how to use Subversion properly. The
> first point will be that each developer has a working copy unique to
> them, not shared with anyone else.
>
> http://svnbook.org

For material examples,

1) When separate working copies are used, concurrent editing is  
managed by SVN.  i.e. if person A changes function func_a in file  
source.c and person B changes function func_b in file source.c,  
subversion will make sure both changes appear in the file when  
everybody has committed and updated.  If you use shared filestore then  
the last person to save is the winner, and the loser loses his or her  
changes.  (read-modify-write concurrency problem)

2) If user A upgrades their installation of SVN and user B does not,  
then the working copy may become corrupt as changes to the SVN client  
are made on the assumption that it is one client host per working copy.

If you still go ahead I would like to hear of any problems you  
encounter, as we are using a shared working copy for binary files.   
Because we use MS Office, (1) doesn't apply to us, but (2) has already  
affected us.

> Mark Cimini also wrote:
> Reasons include that some COTS tools do not lend themselves  to the  
> standard SCC model.  These tools usually think of the  development  
> space as there own.

On our development side we use Visual Studio as well as emacs, vi, gcc  
and python.  We have no problem just "svn add"ing a Visual Studio  
solution.  The only integration SVN needs with your COTS tools is that  
the COTS stuff shouldn't remove the .svn directories.  SVN doesn't  
then care what happens to the working copy files, it just diffs them  
with its own records.

> Also some development is R&D where there is "architecture on the fly."

I have a "general" project for this kind of work, and when I hack a  
prototype together I just put it in its own directory and "svn add"  
it.  It's a small change to your developers' habits but the benefits  
of doing it SVN's way are very great.

So I reiterate for development work, it really is best to use separate  
working copies.



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Re: Can subversion be used tocontrol a shared directory?

Posted by Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>.
On May 30, 2008, at 08:33, Mark Cimini wrote:

>    I was wondering if Subversion has been used to source code  
> control of a shared subdirectory among users?  Basically a disk is  
> NFS'ed and a small team shares the development subdirectory.  I'd  
> like subversion to occasionally go in an capture the state of the  
> tree.  Reasons include that some COTS tools do not lend themselves  
> to the standard SCC model.  These tools usually think of the  
> development space as there own.  Also some development is R&D where  
> there is "architecture on the fly."
>    Any pointers to how others have dealt with this or what proper  
> terms to use when describing this?

Do not do this when using Subversion. Doing so is prone to problems  
and negates many of the advantages of using Subversion (or any  
version control system). Read the book for how to use Subversion  
properly. The first point will be that each developer has a working  
copy unique to them, not shared with anyone else.

http://svnbook.org



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