suggestions for CVS use

[pll at lanminds.com]

  +> Maybe I can ask my sysadmin to think about installing it, if
  +> Subversion is really a lot nicer -- but I kind of doubt it
  +> because IIRC it'd require changes to be made to the webserver.

This is only true if you want to use Apache as the network layer.  
You can use svn from local disk, or via a tunnel such as rsh or ssh 
without using the APR (Apache Portable Runtime) engine for the 
network transport.

The configuration changes required to Apache are minimal, however, 
they do require Apache 2.x.  Also, there is nothing preventing you 
from installing Apache 2.x specifically and only for the use of 
subversion along side of a previously installed 1.x server.


>>>>> On Wed, 7 May 2003, "Jason" == Jason Stephenson wrote:

  Jason> I've not used Subversion. When I was looking into it, it
  Jason> wasn't quite ready for prime time.

Currently, svn is at release 0.21.  However, the release number does 
not mean it's not ready for prime time:

	- the Subversion project has been self-hosted under 
	  Subversion for over 18 months
	- no one has ever reported lost data due to a bug in svn
	- there is a large list of projects currently using svn
	  for day-to-day rev-control in development environments,
	  both open source and in the enterprise.

IMO, it's ready for prime-time, but as with all F/OSS, you should be 
diligent in tracking the progress and changes being made to it if 
it's going to be critical to your life :)

  Jason> I'm definitely interested to know how it handles renaming
  Jason> files and directories.

CVS is really just a layer on top of RCS, which has no inherent 
ability to version directories, and no ability to handle file 
re-naming.  Subversion uses a BDB backend (from Sleepycat) and 
creates a virtual file system in a BDB database.  This allows it to 
track everything, including meta-data.  Directories become just 
files, rather similar in concept to a UNIX file system where 
"everything is a file".  In Subversion, "everything is just a file 
system entry" therefore, it's possible to track everything, *AND* 
maintain the history of it simultaneously.

(As a side note, there is work to back-end svn with an SQL-based 
database, whether that's MySQL, PostgreSQL, or what I don't know at 
this time.  Ideally, it will be a modular plugin :)
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
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