Re: Locking binary files

Hi,

For one and a half years, I have been keeping my eyes on the git community in hopes of making the switch away from SVN. One particular issue holding me back is the inability to lock binary files. Throughout the past year, I have yet to see developments on this issue. I understand that locking files goes against the fundamental principles of distributed source control, but I think we need to come up with some workarounds. For Linux kernel development this is may not be an issue; however, for application development this is a major issue. How else can one developer be sure that time spent editing a binary file will not be wasted because another developer submitted a change?

To achieve the effects of locking, a "central" repository must be identified. Regardless of the distributed nature of git, most _companies_ will have a "central" repository for a software project. We should be able to mark a file as requiring a lock from the governing git repository at a specified address. Is this made difficult because git tracks file contents not files?

In any case, I think this is a crucial issue that needs to be addressed if git is going to be adopted by companies with binary file conflict potential. I don't see how a web development company can take advantage of git to track source code and image file changes. Any advice would be great!

Regards,

Mario