Re: Why CVSREAD?

[Richard Wesley]

At 11:58 -0800 1/25/01, Richard Wesley wrote:
> > Lo, on Wednesday, January 24, David L. Martin did write:
> >
> > >  ----- Original Message -----
> > >  From: "Richard Cobbe" <address@hidden>
> > >  >
> > >  > What's the CVSREAD variable for?
> > >  >
> > >  > I know what it does, but I was (and remain) hard-pressed to 
> > > come up with a
> > >  > situation in which this behavior would be useful.  I'm assuming that such
> > >  > situations exist; could someone provide an example?
> > >
> > >  This is typically used when you want to loosely enforce the rule
> > >  that developers should do a cvs edit prior to actually working on
> > >  a file.  Cvs edit makes a read-only file writable in addition to
> > >  registering the developer to be an editor of the file.
> >
> > <SNIP>
> >
> > Sounds reasonable enough.  But, rather than checking out *every* file
> > read-only, why not use `cvs watch on'?  According to section 10.6.1 of the
> > Cederqvist (node `Setting a watch'), applying this command to specific
> > files will cause those files (and no others) to be checked out read-only,
> > requiring a `cvs edit' to make them read-write.

I just thought of another reason I like to use CVSREAD:  it makes me 
be more deliberate about the files that I touch.  I especially like 
keeping files locked in case my cat walks on the keyboard when I am 
looking at a file...

- rmgw

<http://www.electricfish.com/hawkfish/>

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Richard Wesley           Electric Fish, Inc.       address@hidden

"I hate to lie to a dog, but this is an election year."
                                      - Guy Noir (Garrison Keillor)