Re: [PATCH] Support ent:relative_path

From: Alex Riesen <raa.lkml@gmail.com>
Date: May 4, 2007, 09:46 UTC
Message-ID: <81b0412b0705040246r5a2726b8g4323cadeacee3aa7@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <56b7f5510705040226o14d55b6euda7df1da7ad9b08a@mail.gmail.com>

On 5/4/07, Dana How <danahow@gmail.com> wrote:

> > I'd suggest to define a special character for _top_ level. Real pity
> > ":/" is taken.
> We could use ://fullpath for top level,

No good. How'd you find a commit starting with "/" than? (without changing ":/" syntax).

> and :relpath for relative. Then "string" in :/string couldn't start with /,
> which shouldn't be a problem (right?).  I've certainly seen double
> slashes before;
> perforce in fact uses them for the root of the repository (depot).

And I really hate perforce for its stupid redundancy (and changing of meaning of well-known idioms: why should // be anything special but plain top level or root?! Why the hell do they need them at if you cannot use relative paths in client specs at all?! Why can't the p4 command-line tool figure the fact from context or request the context be provided by user?! IOW, Perforce is a real bad example of how you do version control).

> This all depends on deciding that :relpath should be the (incompatible)
> new default, and I'm not sure that's going to happen.

If we are to stay that compatible, maybe ":./" for relative paths and the old syntax left to mean top-level would the best choice for now.