Re: Removing directories on a branch

[Mark E. Hamilton]

Murrgon wrote:
> I have a project in CVSNT that has the main trunk and
> three branches.  I have added an extensive directory
> structure to one of the branches.  My boss came along
> and decided to reorganize the entire directory structure
> of what was added.

You'll probably get a reply from Arthur Barrett shortly  pointing out 
that this is not the correct mailing list for CVSNT. ;)  Still, the 
answer is the same whether it's CVS or CVSNT.

> If the project only had the main trunk, I could go onto
> the server and just wipe out the added directory tree
> and then readd the new one.  However, the fact that it
> was added on one of the branches makes the situation
> unclear to me.  There were no changes made to any of
> the files in the added directory tree so wiping it out
> is not really an issue.  Also most of them are binaries
> anyway.

> What should be the best course of action here?  Can I
> simply proceed as if there were only one branch, or
> will that mess up the whole structure?  If not, how
> can I replace the existing directory structure with the
> new one?

Remember that directories are not branched; only files are branched, so 
 when you added the new directory hierarchy you added it for all 
branches (though the files in those directories might not exist on all 
all branches.) All information about the branches that a file is part of 
exists in the file, and nowhere else. So, if you don't need to keep the 
new files then yes, you can simply remove the directory hierarchy from 
the repository and re-create it elsewhere.

However, you could also just move it to where you want it in the 
repository, which would retain the files in the new location.

Note that either of these approaches will cause confusion in working 
directories where this directory hierarchy was checked out. If no one is 
working with the files/directories in question it won't be a big 
problem, but if they are they can simply remove the old directory and 
then re-check out everything, which should clean up the traces of the 
old directory and check out the new one.

--
----------------
Mark E. Hamilton
Orion International Technologies, Inc.
Sandia National Laboratory, NM.
505-844-7666