On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 5:30 PM, Ben Reser <b...@reser.org> wrote: > Regarding this issue: http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3311 > > We don't support using --depth options other than infinity with > externals. Bert mentions that wc-ng should make it easier to > implement this. > > However, given the way svn:externals can be defined I think that it's > really hard to implement this without a performance hit or without > having users frustrated by the way it works. In particular you can > define svn:externals at a different level than where you're putting > them. If we wanted this to work the way most people I think would > expect them to work you'd end up needing to walk all the way up to the > repo root looking for externals on every checkout/update. Which > stinks. > > We could punt on that but I'm not sure I like the idea of just > continuing to apply hacks upon a poor design. So I'm wondering if it > wouldn't be better to just replace externals with something that > resolves a lot of other issues and gives us a more consistent > behavior. While leaving the existing externals implementation alone. > > What does everyone else think? Anyone have put any thought into > replacing externals?
In theory, the wc-ng data model allows arbitrary nodes in the working copy to reference arbitrary repositories and paths in those repository. This would be a great way to *implement* externals, leaving the property merely a UI to set and change them. We could also introduce a new UI for doing so. The problem, though is backwards compat with a heterogenous client environment, so I'd think the property still has to be shuffled around. (*sigh*) -Hyrum
