Recurring problem with the SVN structure for WC

Greetings everyone,

	There's a recurrent problem when trying to put Subversion
into use by an heterogeneous team containing developers,
project
managers and so on. This problem is the fragility of the
Subversion control files, namely ".svn" folders
and contents.

	It's kind of difficult to enforce the idea of not copying
folders out of a Subversion-safe environment due to the mess
that
the hidden folders create.

	I confess that I ignore the reason why CVS and SVN insist
in keeping control files for each folder inside the
respective
folder. I suspect that it has something to do with having
multiple small files instead of one huge file, or maybe
speeding up the
search for the file's version properties.

	If that's so, I suggest a structure like this:

ProjectRoot
..|
..+- .svntree/
..|....+- .svn/ (for ProjectRoot)
..|....|....+- svndir1/ (I.e. prop-base for ProjectRoot)
..|....|....+- svndir2/ (I.e. props for ProjectRoot)
..|....|....+- .../
..|....|....+- entries (for ProjectRoot)
..|....|....+- ...
..|....|
..|....+- ProjectDir1
..|....|....+- .svn/ (for ProjectDir1)
..|....|....|....+- svndir1/ (I.e. prop-base for
ProjectDir1)
..|....|....|....+- svndir2/ (I.e. props for ProjectDir1)
..|....|....|....+- .../
..|....|....|....+- entries (for ProjectDir1)
..|....|....|....+- ...
..|....|....|
..|....|....+- .../
..|....|
..|....+- ...
..|
..+- ProjectDir1
..|....+- .../
..|....+- ...
..|
..+- .../
..+- ...

	In other words, separate the tree of SVN control files from
the real files and put it in the project root.

	The advantage of that is that copying folders around won't
mess the versioning information. Except, of course, copying
the
project root to another project. But in that case, the
Subversion client could ignore ".svntree" in a
subfolder which the parent
already had an ".svntree".

	In such situations, copying from one place to another would
have the expected result, which is, having unversioned
folders
and files in the destination. And that would happen no
matter which interface the user would have used.

	The Subversion client would only need to navigate through
two parallel trees instead of a single one. I believe that
it
would have little if any impact on performance or
resources.

Thank you for your attention,

Felipe Carasso
Developer
Latin America Card Development Group - SIM Applications
client/server
Gemalto
Tel: + 1-514-732-2342
Fax: + 1-514-732-2301
3 Place du Commerce, bureau 300
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3E 1H7
felipe.carassogemalto.com
www.gemalto.com

I assume you meant to send this to userssubversion mailing list.  If
not you should have, although it is nothing that hasn't been
asked for
before.  There are open issues in the issue tracker for this
already.

Mark


On 8/24/07, CARASSO Felipe <Felipe.CARASSOgemalto.com> wrote:
> Greetings everyone,
>
>         There's a recurrent problem when trying to put
Subversion into use by an heterogeneous team containing
developers, project
> managers and so on. This problem is the fragility of
the Subversion control files, namely ".svn"
folders and contents.
>
>         It's kind of difficult to enforce the idea of
not copying folders out of a Subversion-safe environment due
to the mess that
> the hidden folders create.
>
>         I confess that I ignore the reason why CVS and
SVN insist in keeping control files for each folder inside
the respective
> folder. I suspect that it has something to do with
having multiple small files instead of one huge file, or
maybe speeding up the
> search for the file's version properties.
>
>         If that's so, I suggest a structure like this:
>
> ProjectRoot
> ..|
> ..+- .svntree/
> ..|....+- .svn/ (for ProjectRoot)
> ..|....|....+- svndir1/ (I.e. prop-base for
ProjectRoot)
> ..|....|....+- svndir2/ (I.e. props for ProjectRoot)
> ..|....|....+- .../
> ..|....|....+- entries (for ProjectRoot)
> ..|....|....+- ...
> ..|....|
> ..|....+- ProjectDir1
> ..|....|....+- .svn/ (for ProjectDir1)
> ..|....|....|....+- svndir1/ (I.e. prop-base for
ProjectDir1)
> ..|....|....|....+- svndir2/ (I.e. props for
ProjectDir1)
> ..|....|....|....+- .../
> ..|....|....|....+- entries (for ProjectDir1)
> ..|....|....|....+- ...
> ..|....|....|
> ..|....|....+- .../
> ..|....|
> ..|....+- ...
> ..|
> ..+- ProjectDir1
> ..|....+- .../
> ..|....+- ...
> ..|
> ..+- .../
> ..+- ...
>
>         In other words, separate the tree of SVN
control files from the real files and put it in the project
root.
>
>         The advantage of that is that copying folders
around won't mess the versioning information. Except, of
course, copying the
> project root to another project. But in that case, the
Subversion client could ignore ".svntree" in a
subfolder which the parent
> already had an ".svntree".
>
>         In such situations, copying from one place to
another would have the expected result, which is, having
unversioned folders
> and files in the destination. And that would happen no
matter which interface the user would have used.
>
>         The Subversion client would only need to
navigate through two parallel trees instead of a single one.
I believe that it
> would have little if any impact on performance or
resources.
>
> Thank you for your attention,
>
> Felipe Carasso
> Developer
> Latin America Card Development Group - SIM Applications
client/server
> Gemalto
> Tel: + 1-514-732-2342
> Fax: + 1-514-732-2301
> 3 Place du Commerce, bureau 300
> Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3E 1H7
> felipe.carassogemalto.com
> www.gemalto.com
>
>


-- 
Thanks

Mark Phippard
http://markphip.blogspo
t.com/

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Ugh, you're right. Wrong list. Sorry...

Felipe Carasso
Developer
Latin America Card Development Group - SIM Applications
client/server
Gemalto
Tel: + 1-514-732-2342
Fax: + 1-514-732-2301
3 Place du Commerce, bureau 300
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3E 1H7
felipe.carassogemalto.com
www.gemalto.com 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Phippard [mailto:markphipgmail.com] 
> Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 6:08 PM
> To: userssubclipse.tigris.org
> Subject: Re: [Subclipse-users] Recurring problem with
the SVN 
> structure for WC
> 
> I assume you meant to send this to userssubversion mailing 
> list.  If not you should have, although it is nothing
that 
> hasn't been asked for before.  There are open issues in
the 
> issue tracker for this already.
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> On 8/24/07, CARASSO Felipe <Felipe.CARASSOgemalto.com> wrote:
> > Greetings everyone,
> >
> >         There's a recurrent problem when trying to
put 
> Subversion into 
> > use by an heterogeneous team containing
developers, project 
> managers and so on. This problem is the fragility of
the 
> Subversion control files, namely ".svn"
folders and contents.
(...)