Re: [Monotone-devel] Running Monotone as a personal VCS

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Thu, Jun 15, 2006 at 08:22:28PM +0100, Paul Moore wrote:
> Sounds good - presumably I'd need to build from source for this? (I'm
> on Windows, so I'm spoilt by prebuilt binaries :-))

The "dumb" stuff is a python wrapper around the standard monotone
command line client, so you just need a working python install.

> If I follow the readme correctly, I can do 2-way sync with sftp, but
> only 1-way with http or ftp. I'm not sure what "plain files" means
> here - presumably local filesystem access?
> 
> Unfortunately, my ISP does only provide ftp and http, so I'm stuck
> with 1-way sync, or copying files about. Actually, even if they did,
> I'd still be stuck at work, where the firewall only lets http and ftp
> through :-( Is there a particular reason why ftp can't do 2-way sync?

Probably just that no-one has implemented it, because FTP is a really
annoying protocol.  In particular, IIRC, someone has to sit down and
make FTP "ls" parsing work, because we need to be able to figure out
the length of a particular file in bytes.  (FTP does _have_ a "SIZE"
command, but it doesn't actually work.  You have to do a "LIST", and
then parse the textual output the server gives you.)

This is still a reasonably small patch, though, especially if you only
make it smart enough to handle whatever it is that your server
returns, and leave it to the next guy to make it do more :-).  The
interface is described in "fs.py", class WriteableFS.

The "dumb" code in general could use some love, but it should work.

> I'll see about a file copying approach. I should be able to script it
> so it's not too painful.

Note also that in 0.27 (released soon), you'll be able to use mtn to
sync directly between dbs on the local disk, or over ssh (though the
latter doesn't sound like it would help in your case).

-- Nathaniel

-- 
Details are all that matters; God dwells there, and you never get to
see Him if you don't struggle to get them right. -- Stephen Jay Gould