From: Jon Seymour Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 23:49:56 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH] [RFD] Add repoid identifier to commit [its a workspace id, isn't it?] Message-ID: <2cfc403205051316495b46115e@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20050513222502.GD32232@pasky.ji.cz> On 5/14/05, Petr Baudis wrote: > Dear diary, on Fri, May 13, 2005 at 03:37:47AM CEST, I got a letter > where Jon Seymour told me that... > > > > > > I would like to suggest a few limiters are set on the repoid. In > > > particular, I'd like to suggest that a repoid is a UUID, that a file is > > > used to track it (.git/repoid), and that if it doesn't exist, a new one > > > is created from /dev/urandom. > > > > > > > I think I understand what Thomas is trying to achieve, but I think > > there is a naming problem here. The marker really isn't a repoid - it > > is a workspace id. > > Why not just call the thing "branch"? It's as well eligible for that > term as anything. :-) > I very nearly agreed with you except for one thing. In a traditional SCM, a branch is something that can be contributed by multiple people but I don't think we want that meaning here. Consider this graph where there is a main Trunk R, and a branch B and two programmers Ba and Bb working on a branch B. Thomas wants to be able to form views of the merge order of 3 workspaces (W(R), W(Ba) and W(Bb)), even though Ba and Bb are working on the same "branch" in SCM terms. Rn ------------- | \ \ Rn-1 Ba,n Bb,n | / | Rn-2 | | \ | Rn-3 Ba,n-1 | | / / Rn-4 ----------- Also, most times in a traditional SCM, branches diverge, but the behaviour we are interested in here is the repeated converging and diverging of workspaces on the same "branch" [ I know, a branches can be used in that way in traditional SCMs, but that is a degenerate case of their intended use - maintaining paths of long term divergence ]. So, while I think there may well be some value is a separate "branchid" attribute in a commit, I think they are describing (slightly) different things. jon -- homepage: http://www.zeta.org.au/~jon/ blog: http://orwelliantremors.blogspot.com/