[Monotone-devel] line endings

[Howard Spindel]

It seems to me that to be completely general monotone needs a 
per-file certificate specifying the permissible 
transformations.  Examples of the settings available in that certificate:

1.  Never transform anything
2.  Database file is LF line terminated, transform LFs to platform 
specific in/out
3.  Database file is CR/LF line terminated, transform CR/LFs to 
platform specific in/out
4.  Whatever additional combinations are possible (does monotone have 
to worry about big-endian vs little-endian ever?)

"Platform specific" could be determined by system call, overrideable by hook.

Monotone would request the correct setting on initial file 
check-in.  For backwards compatibility, if the certificate does not 
exist monotone does whatever it does now but requests the correct 
setting on next file check-in.

The problem I see in the discussions so far is not in knowing what to 
do on the platform you're on, but in knowing what's stored in the 
database.  Monotone could use heuristics to determine that, but if 
the heuristics fail the user gets a big, maybe nasty surprise.

In a project development environment where everyone uses the same OS, 
"never transform anything" should work well for all files and perhaps 
there should be a way to tell monotone that this case exists.

Since I know nothing of monotone internals, I acknowledge that I 
could be way off-base on something here.

Howard