[Bioperl-l] Re: CVS directory delete

[James Stalker]

On Thu, May 08, 2003 at 06:44:34PM +0800, Juguang Xiao wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Borrow your seconds about CVS problem. Someone in list said the 
> directory in CVS repository is not erasable once created. Is that 
> really really?
>
> I agree you cannot delete a directory by using CVS command either 
> locally or remotely. However, is there any problem if root user of that 
> machine or the creator delete any directory in CVS repository on file 
> system?

No, but it might not be a good idea.  If you _really_ don't want a
directory, i.e. you will never want any old versions from that
directory, then you can, as you say, remove it in the repository.

The reason you (usually) can't delete directories is that CVS needs them
to store old versions of files.  Even if those files are not needed now,
and have been cvs remove'd, CVS still keeps the old versions in case you
need them.  You might one day need an old version of Ensembl, for
example, and you would be fairly unhappy if you couldn't get back the
appropriate version of ensembl-map, even though it is currently unused.

Regards,

James

-- 
James Stalker
Ensembl Web Project Leader - http://www.ensembl.org