shooting one's self in the foot.

[graeme . vetterlein]

This is the kind of e-mail that attracts replies like (insert
something very attractive) In essence replies of the form "Oh
I wouldn't do it that way ...


I'm using a CVS (Solaris) repository with pclient (W2K) clients and
I keep finding things 'a bit flaky' I suspect:

  1: I've set things up a little unusually
  2: I've got some slightly odd versions of the software.
  3: I'm working in an unusual fashion

I don't really want people to try to debug my problems rather
say:

    - We do X it works fine
    - Yea ... bummer .. don't try that

So the facts:

   We are doing JAVA Web development (how unusual ! ;-)
   We have a single central CVS repository on Solaris.
   Each developer has a W2K desktop.

   We use:

      Forte (with CVS integration)
      DOS-CMD prompt 
      WinCVS
      JCVS (not a lot, seems very buggy)
      Emacs on NT 
      Cygwin (inside and outside emacs)
      Emacs on Solaris (via X)
      local CVS on Solaris (via X)

      Samba

The use of samba means I can check a file out of the repository on
Unix (local) to a (local) sandbox and access the files on Unix (local)
or W2K (samba) "I DON'T SHARE THE REPOSITORY" (actually I do ... but
nobody has access :-)

We have 'modules' like:

   wwwroot - Web pages
   config  - .property files
   code1
   code2
   code3
   code4

Problem is the structure is:

        ./wwwroot/*
        ./config/*
        ./code1/*
        ./code1/code2/*
        ./code3/*
        ./code3/code4/*

Also I tend to want to do things like:

     cvs checkout code1/code2/someotherthing

So I guess I'm 'perverting' the meaning of modules, confusing
it with directories ?? Comments?

Second doing most CVS stuff from the Unix box works just fine. Doing
similar things via pserver causes odd problems.

        cvs -d release

Does nothing on NT (it prints messages)

Using cvs commands from dos-cmd prompt tends to work (release still
fails :-) but doing it from inside Cygwin inside emacs fails. (CR-LF
issues?)

One thing I really want to do a lot is:

    I do:

      cvs checkout wwwroot
      cvs checkout config
      cvs checkout code1

I then work for several weeks on bits of code that cause me to make
small changes to ./config and ./wwwroot files. Then comes time to
commit. I can remember the code but what other files did I change?

What I really want to do is:

     cvs --what-did-I-change wwwroot

And get a simple list of filenames that changed. I can then review if
I want to commit or abandon the changes. If I use:

  cvs status

I get hundreds of lines most meaning 'no change'.

If I could run the cvs status command on Unix (or Cygwin) I could grep
for the changes but Unix falls foul of the ^M stored in the CVS/Root
file (can't open /usr/myrepository^M) 

{ In short despite being able to edit/compile the code from Unix & w2k
  I can only do CVS for a given module ALL on Unix or ALL on w2k }


What I really want to do is:

     cvs checkout <something>

Do a lot of work

     cvs --what-did-I-change <something>

     rm junk.files

     cvs commit <something>/goodfile1
     cvs commit <something>/gooddir/

     cvs -d release <something>

     cvs checkout <something>           --- Since other developers may have 
changed (e.g deleted)
                                            file/directory structure.


I have a number of versions of CVS on w2k (everything from binaries, I can't 
compile M$ source):

  wincvs/cvs.exe
  cygwin/cvs.exe
  

-- 
As I was walking down the street one dark and dreary day,
I came upon a billboard and much to my dismay,
The words were torn and tattered,
>From the storm the night before,
The wind and rain had done its work and this is how it goes,

Smoke Coca-Cola cigarettes, chew Wrigleys Spearmint beer,
Ken-L-Ration dog food makes your complexion clear,
Simonize your baby in a Hershey candy bar,
And Texaco's a beauty cream that's used by every star.

Take your next vacation in a brand new Frigedaire,
Learn to play the piano in your winter underwear,
Doctors say that babies should smoke until they're three,
And people over sixty-five should bathe in Lipton tea.

Graeme


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