[M3devel] cvsup and "flags"

[Jay]

It's a little different to say "these flags are useful" vs.
"I should be able to store these flags in source control".
Not entirely different, but somewhat.
 
 
If you need them in source control, then you need your source control
system to bother with system-dependent possibly esoteric features.
On the other hand, if nobody every catered to good system-dependent
aspects, a lot of things would be a lot worse.
 
 
I only skimmed the cvsup source a little, but I think it traffics
in plain integers. It would be smarter to traffic in the "name"
of the flag, and the "OS name" it originated from..and maybe allow
some "required" vs. "optional" bit. That way, if Darwin and FreeBSD
both had the flag "FOO", it hopefully/probably means the same on each,
but could be "translated" into the proper integer. And if user deemed
flag "FOO" important than cvsup could error for updates to a system
that doesn't support it. Maybe it already does do these things though.
 
 
Some people use "source control" for keep track of and backup
their "system configuration" or perhaps their entire "system install".
Whereas most people just store a bunch of text files.
There can be quite a difference -- e.g. support for hardlinks, symlinks,
owner user, owner group, etc..
 
 
Folks just storing textual source files tend to have lighter requirements.
(which reminds me -- can you clear the executable bit on the vast
majority of non-directories in the tree, like outside of scripts/*.sh and scripts/*.py)
 
 
 - Jay


----------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:56:40 +0200
> From: wagner at elegosoft.com
> To: m3devel at elegosoft.com
> Subject: Re: [M3devel] cvsup and "flags"
>
> Quoting Jay :
>
>>
>> Um, these "flags" that cvsup is willing to traffic:
>>
>> 1) They are the same between machines that support them?
>> Maybe, maybe not, I can check.
>>
>> 2) They are actually interesting? Given that many operating
>> systems (e.g. Linux, Solaris) don't support them?
>
> Yes, they are interesting and important, since they are in use
> at many sites. They're not portable as far as I know though.
>
> The system immutable flag is used by many FreeBSD installations to
> further protect from accidental and unauthorized changes.
>
>> They seem a little dubious.
>> I suppose most cvsup users have both client and server on FreeBSD
>> and if the FreeBSD source itself needs these flags on source
>> controled files, it is useful.
>>
>> Even storing an executable bit in cvs seems not portable..but that
>> is a different set of flags. (NTFS ACL should be reasonable
>> superset, but then, FAT?)
>
> POSIX file access control lists should be portable to a certain degree.
>
> Olaf
> --
> Olaf Wagner -- elego Software Solutions GmbH
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