Re: '.git file' alternative, native (cross-platform) workdir support.

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Feb 29, 2008, 14:25 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LSU.1.00.0802291333310.22527@racer.site>
In-Reply-To: <47C80786.4070701@trolltech.com>

Hi,

On Fri, 29 Feb 2008, Marius Storm-Olsen wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Johannes Schindelin said the following on 29.02.2008 13:54:
> > On Fri, 29 Feb 2008, Marius Storm-Olsen wrote:
> > > However, wouldn't simply redirecting everything into a real repo 
> > > then create problems with shared index file and more? A problem 
> > > which could be tacled by file suffixes or other methods, I'm sure, 
> > > but which would require even more patches to achieve the goal.
> > 
> > Not only would it requre these patches, but it would actually make a 
> > _safe_ multiple-workdirs feature possible.
> 
> Sure, I'm aware of that. The initial goal was to make something which 
> works as the current contrib/workdir/git-new-workdir, just 
> cross-platform. Then we can take it from there, step by step, until we 
> have something which works safely; instead of taking a single big leap.

That's what I am saying: there is no way to make it safe.

> I'm actually not sure that it's impossible to make it safe. My 
> implementation works by redirecting files into the real repo. However, 
> we can also detect when redirection is in effect, and do extra 
> 'maintainance' things then, to avoid the bad effects.

>From the perspective of Windows, I guess it is easy to overlook the fact

that permissions can break your idea.

Even after creating a second working tree for an existing repository, the permissions of the original repository can change.

The only way to be on the safe side is to use _the repository_ twice. IOW not having a second .git/ directory.

Also, having a single .git is just a very simple, and thus preferable concept, to having part of this, and part of that repository.

Ciao, Dscho