Re: subversion vs cvs (Was: Re: linked list rewrite)

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 23:03:03 -0400 (AST)
"Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@postgresql.org> wrote:

> On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Sailesh Krishnamurthy wrote:
> 
> > Which brings me to another question .. has anybody considered using
> > subversion instead of CVS ?
> 
> Why?  not that I'm for a chance from something that isn't broken, but
> what advantages does subversion give us over what we already have?
 Subversion has lots of "little" benefits, but nothing that would be a major incentive to switch.  The biggest benefits
Ican think of of the top of my head are: 
 
 * Commits are actually atomic  * protocol sends diffs in both directions which speeds up everything * branching and
taggingare cheap constant time operations
 
 * the time it takes to make changes is based on the size of the   change, not the size of the project
 * whole directories are versioned not just files.  So for example   if you for some reason wanted to rename
src/backend/bootstrap.c  to src/backend/bootup.c you wouldn't lose your revision history   information.  Same thing
goesfor complete reorganizations of the   file layouts.  
 
 * You can checkout "parts" of a project so if you need to fix a   bug in 7.3.6's src/backend/ you only have to
transferthat portion   to you.  
 
 * cvs diff ( well svn diff ) can be done offline.  Same with 'status'   which shows you your local modifications and
'revert'which reverts   your changes back to your last checkout/update/etc. 
 
 * Revisions numbers are repository wide instead of by file.  You can   refer to revision #14328 on hackers and
everyoneknows exactly what   you are talking about and can switch their working copies to it   easily ( svn switch -r
14328).  It's sort of like having a tag   for every commit made to the repository. 
 
 It does have some downsides that I have found, most notibly that the size of your sources you have in your working
copyare essentially  doubled.  There is a copy in your .svn directory that allows the offline status, diff, and revert
commandsto work. 
 
---------------------------------  Frank Wiles <frank@wiles.org>
http://frank.wiles.org---------------------------------