gnu-arch-users
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [GNU-arch-dev] Re: [Gnu-arch-users] new documentation progress


From: Tom Lord
Subject: Re: [GNU-arch-dev] Re: [Gnu-arch-users] new documentation progress
Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 15:22:06 -0700 (PDT)

   >> Always giving root the same tag means that many important control
   >> files always have the same tag (using only generic rules for how those
   >> tags are constructed).

  > Uhm. All current files in Arch are either names tagged
  > - ?[_]./path/to/file-or-dir
  > or explictly id'd via external id files or in-file taglines.

  > Unless I'm badly mistaken giving the root a different id has no effect
  > on the ids of any other files. 

Think more algebraicly:

The root and its id are a kind of `0'.

Given a directory id and a relative path from that directory
to a particular kind of control file, one can reliably construct
the id of that control file.

So, sure --- arch could assign a patch log file the same id it
currently does even if the root id could change.  On the other
hand, the id of a patch log file can be computed using generic
algebra rules, given only its path relative to `0', the root directory.

People sometimes argue that it would be useful if one could "rename"
a subdir to be the root and the root to be a subdir.  It is noteworthy,
though, that any such rename operations, to be valid in arch, would
*have to be* accompanied by a rename of the `{arch}' directory.  In other
words, no matter what, the root directory is a special case.

Given that the root dir is always a special case, giving it a fixed
id (and thus avoiding to *ever* have to rename `{arch}'), is
actually something of a simplification.

-t





reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]