Re: adding on branch

[Paul Edwards]

"Stefan Monnier" <monnier+gnu.cvs.bug/news/@flint.cs.yale.edu> wrote in message 
5lisrrm9ts.fsf@rum.cs.yale.edu">news:5lisrrm9ts.fsf@rum.cs.yale.edu...
> >> > I'm not particularly saying that, I'm just saying that I have a
> >> > hack to stop files added on a branch being put into the Attic,
> >> > by making the directory temporarily not a branch, so that the
> >> > file gets committed as the head.
> >> Huh?  Why on earth do you care whether it's put into the Attic ?
> > Because it never gets moved out otherwise and it becomes
> > an exception file compared to everything else in our system,
> > forever.  And I have had strange errors with Attic files in
> > the past that I would just prefer to not have the exception in
> > the first place.
>
> But it's only a symptom; it's like not wanting people to use umbrellas
> because you don't like your hair to get wet.
> Why do you even bother to look in the repository at all ?

Because I get an error from CVS when I do xyz command (can't
remember, update I think), my heart drops when I realise my job
is on the line if the gamble I took of essentially installing
unauthorized software ends up causing other people to be unable
to do their work.

> If you there's a problem where files in the Attic don't behave the way you
> want them to, then the problem is in the wrong behavior,

I agree.  But it is the same as when we are low on memory.
Theoretically all programs check for returns from malloc() and
will gracefully clean up and exit.

But as a programmer I know that no-one has been given
instructions to test malloc failures at every point in the code
and do appropriate cleanup.  I will be running code that the
developer has never tested.

Even two ctrl-cs currently leave the repository in an unusable
state.

> not in the fact
> that the files are in the Attic (maybe fixing the problem will end up
> moving the files out of the Attic indeed, but it's still only a symptom).

This is true.  But I have enough problems just getting "cvs diff" to
work, even when I have been able to reproduce the problem and
show the code where I think is affected and have a guess at what
the fix might be.  Nevermind getting exceptional Attic problems
fixed, of which I can't even reproduce at will or even remember.

BFN.  Paul.