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POISO a version control tool that can manage files that are NOT under a directory tree marked as managed by the VC tool
 

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  1. POISO a version control tool that can manage files that are NOT under a directory tree marked as managed by the VC tool
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    <p>Most of the version control tools that I am familiar with [*], and all of the modern tools - CVS, SVN, git, Mercurial, Bazaar - have some sort of of "marker" in the directory tree.</p> <p>E.g. if you want to version control file <code>/a/b/c/file.txt</code>, you establish a repository at some level of the tree, e.g.</p> <pre><code>/a/b/.bzr /a/b/.git /a/b/.hg /a/b/CVS </code></pre> <p>Most of the DVCSes actually store the version history in this "marker". CVS does not - instead, the CVS directory contains files that tell you how to get to the actual repository (basically links, although not symlinks or hardlinks). CVS, further, puts a link "CVS" directory in every subdirectory of the working tree, that links that directory to its position in some repository. (Not necessarily the same.)</p> <p>Q: are there any modern DVCS tools that do NOT require such a link or marker in the filesystem.</p> <p>E.g. the file under version control is</p> <pre><code>/a/b/c/file.txt </code></pre> <p>But the repository is in </p> <pre><code>/x/y/z/repo/.DVCS-TOOL/{a/b/c/file.txt} </code></pre> <p>where the {a/b/c/file.txt} part is not necessarily a directory path, but possibly an entry in a database.</p> <p>So that you can do something like the following from inside the repository:</p> <pre><code> &gt; cd /x/y/z/repo &gt; DVCS-TOOL add /a/b/c/file.text Warning: /a/b/c/file.txt is not under the repository /x/y/z. Are you sure that you want to add such an outside-repository file? [y/n] y Absolute or relative path? [ar] a &gt; DVCS-TOOL ci /a/b/c/file.text --ci--&gt; /x/y/z/repo/.DVCS-TOOL/{a/b/c/file.txt} &gt; rm /a/b/c/file.txt &gt; DVCS-TOOL status Missing /a/b/c/file.text --in-repo-as--&gt; /x/y/z/repo/.DVCS-TOOL/{a/b/c/file.txt} &gt; DVCS-TOOL revert /a/b/c/file.text &lt;--reverted-from-- /x/y/z/repo/.DVCS-TOOL/{a/b/c/file.txt} &gt; echo 'stuff' &gt;&gt; /a/b/c/file.txt &gt; DVCS-TOOL ci /a/b/c/file.text --ci--&gt; /x/y/z/repo/.DVCS-TOOL/{a/b/c/file.txt} </code></pre> <p>and from outside the repo, you might do:</p> <pre><code>&gt; cd /a/b/c &gt; echo 'more stuff' &gt;&gt; file.txt &gt; DVCS-TOOL -repo /x/y/z/repo ci /a/b/c/file.text --ci--&gt; /x/y/z/repo/.DVCS-TOOL/{a/b/c/file.txt} </code></pre> <p>MOTIVATION:</p> <p>I version control my home directory, plus other changes that I have made to my systems, whether Linux, Cygwin, or Windows. </p> <p>Sure, I can manage cygwin <code>/</code>, so that I can checkin original plus changes I have made to files like <code>/etc/bash.bashrc</code> and <code>/usr/local/etc/foo.rc</code>. E.g. I can create a <code>/.bzr</code>. (More often I only checkin certain files I have changed, rather than the whole tree, relying on being able to retrieve the distro.)</p> <p>Plus I can do this on UNIX / Linux systems I own, or have root on.</p> <p>But if I don't have write access to <code>/</code>, but do to <code>/usr/etc/foo/bar</code> and <code>/etc/baz/bif</code> ... and do not want to have two separate repos, but instead want a "sparse repo".</p> <p>Or if I want to be able to blow away <code>/cygwin</code> at any time, but still have convenient mapping from <code>/a/b/my-repo/{cygwin/etc/bash.bashrc}</code> to <code>/cygwin/etc/bash.bashrc</code> (and, heck, possibly to <code>/etc/bash.bashrc</code> on other systems)</p> <p>Or, the Windows example, which I ran into today: I want to version control files like</p> <pre><code>C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\11\Maker.ini </code></pre> <p>or, the cygwin path </p> <pre><code>/cygdrive/c/Users/glew/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/FrameMaker/7.2/maker.ini </code></pre> <p>But I don't want to create a repo at C:.hg or C:\Users\glew.hg or ...</p> <p>I just want to have one repo, and./or a workspace based or linked to that repo, and commands that know how to deal with target files that are not actually under the repo/workspace.</p> <p><strong>Q: do you know of a modern DVCS tool that does this?</strong></p> <p><strong>Q: if so, how?</strong></p> <p>E.g. I vaguely know that bzr allows workspaces to share repos - but AFAIK there still needs to be a /a/b/workspace/.bzr file that links the workspace to the repo. So I'll need more details than "look at Bazaar". </p> <p>E.g. I know that hg has a --repository option. But it does NOT do what I want:</p> <pre><code>&gt; cd /tmp &gt; mkdir tmp1; cd tmp1 ./tmp1 &gt; hg init &gt; cd .. &gt; mkdir tmp2; cd tmp2 ./tmp2 &gt; bar.txt &gt; hg --repository ../tmp1 add bar.txt abort: bar.txt not under root '/tmp/tmp1' </code></pre> <hr> <p>Note *: the reason I say "Most of the version control tools that I am familiar with, and all of the modern tools..." is that the tools described in "Boxes, Links, and Parallel Trees: Elements of a Configuration Management System." In Workshop Proceedings of the Software Management Conference. 1989.</p> <p>have such a feature. Or, rather, had such a feature.</p> <p>Embarrassingly, I am the author. But, no, really, I did not ask this question for ego gratification - I had forgotten this paper when I started writing this question.</p> <p>Plus, the tools described in this paper are old and long gone, left behind at an employer years and years ago. And certainly not modern DVCS. </p> <p>Yes, I know: Brian Berliner disses my paper in his CVS paper. He's wrong and I'm right, but that's another issue. (Brian is happy with the possibility of livelock, I am not.)</p> <p>Anyway, I am just hoping that this very old concept, of mapping between a repository and files outside the repository - has resurfaced in some modern DVCS tool. Because I would like to use it, as described above.</p>
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