[Python-Dev] PEP: Migrating the Python CVS to Subversion

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Phillip J. Eby wrote:
> At 08:28 PM 8/4/2005 +0200, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> 
>> BTW, in one of your replies I read that you had a problem with
>> how cvs2svn handles trunk, branches and tags. In reality, this
>> is no problem at all, since Subversion is very good at handling
>> moves within the repository: you can easily change the repository
>> layout after the import to whatevery layout you see fit - without
>> losing any of the version history.
> 
> 
> Yeah, in my use of SVN I find that this is more theoretical than actual 
> for certain use cases.  You can see the history of a file including the 
> history of any file it was copied from.  However, if you want to try to 
> look at the whole layout, you can't easily get to the old locations.  
> This can be a royal pain, whereas at least in CVS you can use viewcvs to 
> show you the "attic".  Subversion doesn't have an attic, which makes 
> looking at structural history very difficult.

Hmm, I usually create a tag before doing such changes in our Subversion
repo. This makes it very easy to look at layouts before a restructuring.

And because Subversion doesn't really care whether you do a tag, branch,
or some other form of diverting versions into different namespaces (it's
all just copying data), you can easily create a directory called "attic"
for just this purpose and copy your structural change tags in there :-)

> That having been said, I generally like Subversion, I just know that 
> when I moved my projects to it I felt it was worth taking extra care to 
> convert them in a way that didn't require me to reorganize the 
> repository immediately thereafter, because I didn't want a sudden 
> discontinuity, beyond which history would be difficult to follow.
> 
> Therefore, I'm saying that taking some care with the conversion process 
> to get things the way we like them would be a good idea.

Still very true indeed.

The fact that cvs2svn is written in Python should make this even easier.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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