SVN for src (was Re: Binutils 2.18 prep)

[Andrew STUBBS]

Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 05:16:17PM +0100, Andrew STUBBS wrote:
>> All in all, I believe that, even before subversion introduces proper support 
>> for something module-like, it is possible to switch to subversion, provided 
>> that users are prepared to be disciplined in their use of checkout and update. 
>> There will be no need to modify the structure of the repository (so people who 
>> checkout the whole world still can), and when svn modules are implemented, 
>> there will be no painful transition (of our doing).
> 
> Anyway, let's wait.  Jim Blandy pointed out to me that most of what we
> need will be in Subversion 1.5 ("sparse directories").  It may be
> awkward, especially for gdb/testsuite/gdb.gdbtk, but we'll work
> something out.

I had not heard of sparse directories, but then I don't follow SVN 
development. I'm not sure where the proper documentation of these 
features might be, but I found this: 
http://svn.collab.net/viewvc/svn/trunk/notes/sparse-directories.txt?view=markup

It would appear that the new feature is exactly what we were discussing, 
except with the update/switch issues resolved. We would still need a 
checkout script to implement the `modules', but it would not be 
necessary to use it for switch or update. Indeed it would also appear to 
be no more powerful than the accidental-feature abuse we were talking 
about - i.e. you can choose your directories, but you can't choose your 
files.

I do not see a big issue with gdb.gdbtk, or indeed the various bits of 
include that are not distributed with some projects. Care would have to 
be taken that updates don't ignore new directories, but that's just a 
question of ensuring that each directory has the proper depth parameter set.

I would suggest now that the real problem is how to convert CVS to SVN. 
I haven't even got a clue how that could be done. The GCC project 
managed it, but I imagine that it will take a CVS expert some time to 
get that mammoth process completed.

Andrew