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Re: Cross-Platform Version Control

From
Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>
Date
May 14, 2009, 20:21 UTC
Message-ID
<4A0C7D35.7090404@op5.se>
In-Reply-To
<4A0C77D9.5050402@gmail.com>
Esko Luontola wrote:
Show 12 quoted lines
> Peter Krefting wrote on 14.5.2009 16:48:
>> Is it really necessary to store the encoding for every single file 
>> name, should it not be enough to just store encoding information for 
>> all file names at once (i.e., for the object that contains the list of 
>> file names and their associated blobs)?
> 
> What about if some disorganized project has people committing with many 
> different encodings? Should we allow it, that a directory has the names 
> of some files using one encoding, and the names of other files using 
> another encoding? Or should we force the whole repository to use the 
> same encoding?
>

If encodings are on a per-tree basis, we could add a special mode-flag for it without breaking backwards incompatibility (I think, anyways). Older gits just won't know how to handle it and will treat it as a byte-stream.

Show 7 quoted lines
>> The best way would be to define this in the Git core once and for all, 
>> and add support to it for all the platforms in the same go, instead of 
>> trying to hack around the issue whenever it pops up on the various 
>> platforms.
> 
> +1
>

There's still the problem that noone's stepped forward to do all that work yet, so apparently this isn't important enough for people to put their patches where their mouths are. Often when issues generate long discussions and no code, it's of high academic interest and of little real-world value.

I believe the "little real-world value" here comes from the fact that cross-platform projects often enforce 7-bit ascii compatible filenames from the start, because they *know* they may run into problems on other filesystems otherwise. Remember it's not only git that has to get things right. It's also build-systems and compilers that have to locate the correct files (the Makefile and the filesystem may use different encodings), so in the real world, people really do stay away from filenames with åäö or other non-ascii chars in them.

It's fun to discuss, but I won't spend any time on it. Good luck to those who do though. I'd quite like to see if someone could pull it off without breaking backwards compatibility or impacting performance too much.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

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Previous: Esko LuontolaNext: Johannes Schindelin
Message 48 of 59 in “Re: Cross-Platform Version Control”
  1. Esko LuontolaMay 12, 2009
  2. Shawn O. PearceMay 12, 2009
  3. Johannes SchindelinMay 12, 2009
  4. Esko LuontolaMay 12, 2009
  5. Johannes SchindelinMay 12, 2009
  6. Esko LuontolaMay 12, 2009
  7. Johannes SchindelinMay 13, 2009
  8. Esko LuontolaMay 13, 2009
  9. Alex RiesenMay 13, 2009
  10. Johannes SchindelinMay 13, 2009
  11. Jeff KingMay 12, 2009
  12. Johannes SchindelinMay 12, 2009
  13. Linus TorvaldsMay 13, 2009
  14. Linus TorvaldsMay 13, 2009
  15. Andreas EricssonMay 13, 2009
  16. Linus TorvaldsMay 13, 2009
  17. Martin LanghoffMay 13, 2009
  18. Linus TorvaldsMay 13, 2009
  19. Theodore TsoMay 13, 2009
  20. Linus TorvaldsMay 13, 2009
  21. Daniel BarkalowMay 13, 2009
  22. Linus TorvaldsMay 13, 2009
  23. Matthias AndreeMay 13, 2009
  24. Linus TorvaldsMay 13, 2009
  25. Jay SoffianMay 13, 2009
  26. Matthias AndreeMay 13, 2009
  27. Dmitry PotapovMay 12, 2009
  28. Martin LanghoffMay 12, 2009
  29. Jakub NarebskiMay 12, 2009
  30. Extend sample pre-commit hook to check for non ascii file/usernamesHeiko Voigt, May 12, 2009
  31. Jakub NarebskiMay 12, 2009
  32. Extend sample pre-commit hook to check for non ascii filenamesHeiko Voigt, May 14, 2009
  33. Martin LanghoffMay 15, 2009
  34. Heiko VoigtMay 18, 2009
  35. Jakub NarebskiMay 18, 2009
  36. check for filenames that only differ in case to sample pre-commit hookHeiko Voigt, Jun 20, 2009
  37. Jakub NarebskiMay 15, 2009
  38. Extend sample pre-commit hook to check for non ascii filenamesHeiko Voigt, May 18, 2009
  39. Johannes SixtMay 18, 2009
  40. Heiko VoigtMay 18, 2009
  41. Johannes SixtMay 18, 2009
  42. Extend sample pre-commit hook to check for non ascii filenamesHeiko Voigt, May 19, 2009
  43. Junio C HamanoMay 18, 2009
  44. Julian PhillipsMay 18, 2009
  45. Junio C HamanoMay 15, 2009
  46. Peter KreftingMay 14, 2009
  47. Esko LuontolaMay 14, 2009
  48. Andreas EricssonMay 14, 2009
  49. Johannes SchindelinMay 14, 2009
  50. Dmitry PotapovMay 15, 2009
  51. Cross-Platform Version ControlJohn Tapsell, May 13, 2009
  52. Jay SoffianMay 13, 2009
  53. Alex RiesenMay 13, 2009
  54. Jay SoffianMay 13, 2009
  55. John TapsellMay 13, 2009
  56. Nicolas PitreMay 13, 2009
  57. Johannes SchindelinMay 13, 2009
  58. Andreas EricssonMay 13, 2009
  59. Miles BaderMay 14, 2009

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