Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Using arch for offline development

[James Blackwell]

> On Thu, May 13, 2004 at 16:02:07 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
>> >>>>> "Matthieu" =3D=3D Matthieu Moy <address@hidden> writes:
>>=20
>>     Matthieu> ... Therefore, you could have a script to sync the
>>     Matthieu> mirrors, delete the =3Dmirror file on one machine and
>>     Matthieu> create it on the other.  That would allow you to swap
>>     Matthieu> mirror and archive easily.
>>=20
>> Dangerous.  Mirroring is about allowing the same archive to be read
>> from different places.  Writing to multiple places is just another
>> name for branch'n'merging, and solving the issues involved with that
>> is one of the original motivations for arch.  Hacking the mirror won't
>> help.
>
> It can be safe and correct, IF DONE RIGHT. If you look at the archive as
> a distributed storage with one master copy, you can select different
> copy to be master at a point where they are consistent. On the other
> hand, having two branches and star-merge is simpler and you can commit
> to one and then to the other branch without havig them synced in
> between (because they are different branches).

As cool as this may be, and as reasonably safe as it may be if always
done right, I'm actually against advocating this. For this to work
right, swapping the actual-archive and mirror around on a regular basis
is heavily dependant upon human behaviors. I don't think that humans are
consistant and reliable enough to always ensure that the steps are
always performed correctly.

Imagine what a mess he'll get into if in a moment of forgetfulness he
removes the =mirror file from both archives, and commits to both? Then
he's got two archives with the same name with valuable patchsets in
both. 

This'll just end up eventually begging the question "How do I recover
patches from two archives with the same name".

>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ----
>                                                Jan 'Bulb' Hudec 
> <address@hidden>
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James Blackwell          Please do not send me carbon copies of mailing
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