[Python-Dev] Subversion

[Jp Calderone]

(This is somewhat off-topic for python-dev, so I won't post more than =

one message unless people really want me to)

Martin v. L=F6wis wrote:
> Fred L. Drake, Jr. wrote:
> =

>> (I'm really looking forward to Subversion 1.1; all the advantage of =

>> Subversion, without the disadvantage of Berkeley DB...!)
> =

> =

> What *is* the disadvantage of Berkeley DB that the file storage of
> svn 1.1 will remove? One of the things that you could do in CVS that
> you can't easily do because of the DB approach is to ultimately
> remove a file, along with its entire history (by removing the ,v file).
> Along with that goes the option of moving part of a repository into
> another repository.

   Files are, by and large, big blobs of opaque bytes.  They don't =

belong in a database.  The subversion developers made a mistake by =

putting *everything* into bdbs.  They should have put metadata into the =

database and files into the filesystem.  I doubt this is the =

disadvantage perceived by the svn user community at large (they mostly =

complain about umask problems), but it is the real problem with using =

bdb in the way svn uses it.

> [snip]
> =

> One problem that I had with svn+bsddb is that the DB files are
> tied to a DB version, so you can't easily upgrade to a newer DB
> version (without dump/load cycle). But

   This is half-true.  You don't have to dump/load to move between =

incompatible database versions, you just have to run the =

sleepycat-supplied upgrade tool.  Not to say that dump/load doesn't work...

   Jp