[Gnu-arch-users] a way to exclude files in {arch}

[Jeremy Shaw]

Hello,

I am attempting to use tla-cvs-sync to do bi-directional mirroring,
but have run into a little problem.  In my case, I am using
tla-cvs-sync to make a project that lives in arch available to an
autobuilder that only understands CVS.

The program has been modified to do the following:

(1) cvs co project--main--1.0
(2) tla my-id "autobuilder <address@hidden>"
(3) tla register-archive archive location
(4) tla-cvs-sync

autobuild some stuff, and commit to cvs

(5) tla-cvs-sync


This almost works. I have imported the project with the {arch}
directory into cvs. Now the autobuilder can check out the project from
CVS, and run 'tla update' no problem.

But when it does a 'tla commit' it will commit the CVS directories in
the {arch} subdirectory -- even though CVS is in the precious
regexp. This is correct behaviour -- it would be bad if a user
accidently set the precious pattern to something that started ignoring
important files in their {arch} directory.

On the otherhand, I really do want to ignore the CVS directories that
appear in {arch}, but there does not seem to be a way to do it.[1]

I can think of several solutions:

(1) update tla-cvs-sync so that it temporarily moves the CVS
    directories out of the way in the {arch} directory before doing a
    'tla commit' and sticks them back in afterwards.

(2) add a new regexp (named something like unsafe_{arch}_precious),
    that only affects files under {arch}. 

(3) make .arch-inventory work the like any other directory even if its
    under {arch}. Then modify tla-cvs-sync to add/modify
    .arch-inventory files when new CVS dirs and added under {arch}.

(4) Add a new option to =tagging-method: ignore_CVS_dirs_in_{arch}

(5) ????

Of course, the long term goal is, 

(6) patch the autobuilder to understand tla natively. This is already
    being done, but I need a work-around in the meantime.

I can implement any of the solutions for my own purposes, but I would
like to implement something beneficial to tla if possible. 

Jeremy Shaw.