[Bioperl-l] Re: CVS directory delete

[James Stalker]

On Thu, May 08, 2003 at 07:09:51PM +0800, Juguang Xiao wrote:
> >
> >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.
> >
> 
> Thanks, James. That is the point. After this managical decision issue, 
> by replacing 'remove' with 'move' to somewhere outside the repository, 
> do you think that will cause any technical CVS crash, conflict, puzzle, 
> or WebCVS negative effect?

Nope.

That is, generally nope.  CVS has no record of where files are other
than by looking in a directory (hence it needs the directories to be
there), so if you remove a directory, CVS won't even notice it's gone.

I think the only time this might cause hiccups is if you have referenced
particular files/modules/directories in a CVS administrative file (e.g.
CVSROOT/modules or something).  If you aren't trying to do anything
clever, removing directories shouldn't cause many problems.  Checked out
copies might get a little confused if someone tries to commit or update,
but this shouldn't be a big deal.

James

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