RE: Sharing files across directories

[Douglas Finkle]

> >> Is there a way to share a single source file across multiple 
> >> directories in CVS, so that if it gets committed/merged in 
> >> one directory the update registers in both locations?  I know 
> >> that VSS has this concept, and was wondering if CVS offers 
> >> any sort of similar functionality. I was thinking that 
> >> perhaps this could be achieved with some symlink trickery on 
> >> the server-side?
> 
> >Yeah, this is possible using "Ampersand modules". See 
> >http://www.cvshome.org/docs/manual/cvs_18.html#SEC160
> 
> The ampersand module technique will only work if the shared 
> file is the only one in its parent directory.  

True enough.

> Unfortunately, CVS has no way 
> to map multiple repository directories to a single workspace 
> directory, and it has no wayto explicitly map version containers 
> to files in the user's sandbox.  Because the mapping is done 
> explicitly by matching directories in the repository and
> sandbox, you're limited in the kinds of sharing that you can perform.

Another method of hackery would be to put in a comminfo hook that 
matched on the desired file(s), and then called rysnc to distribute.
Of course, to be safe, you'd need to do write locking on the 
receiving side during the operation.  There's a program called 
cvslock that can be used w/ rsync to do just that.