[Gnu-arch-users] Re: using sha1 as explicit id

[Miles Bader]

Colin Walters <address@hidden> writes:
> I was wondering - why not just use a SHA1 hash as the file identity for
> explicit IDs?  That way if two people independently import the same
> version of a project into arch, they would be able to apply patches from
> one another, etc.

That seems likely only to work `sometimes' (as people are likely to do
use initial arch imports of things at different times), so while I guess
there's nothing wrong with it, the advantages are kinda minimal too...

It would seem a reasonable way of generating a unique id for an existing
source file, but might prove a problem for new files -- e.g., if you add
files when they're still empty, or merely copies of a template file,
then you're going to run into conflicts.

-Miles
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`All the past could be forgiven.'   [NYT]