How SVN works wrt copies of versions - Was: Please think about incrementel sync Re: Another idea for an application for the Neo: Instant sync to web page duplicating info on phone

[EdorFaus]

On 11/30/06, Tin Newsom <cephdon at gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>
> If you are keeping a copy of the current versions locally then diffing and
> sending only the diffs would be easy... but to my knowledge svn only keeps
> the diffs between versions at the repository. Someone who knowns please

As far as I know, this is essentially correct - the repository contains the 
original file, and the diff for each version since then. This is, afterall, 
enough to recreate any version.

> correct me.  If I understand what you are saying and based on my
> knowledge...
> You either keep an old version for diffing purposes and replace it with the
> current version when you do the commit.  All changes happen to the original
> not the "old copy"

I believe this is exactly what svn does. It certainly keeps a copy of the 
last-committed (or updated-to) version in every working copy, along with the 
version being worked on. This allows it to do various things while offline.

<snip>
> My understanding of svn is that it transmits the entire file and the svn
> server does the diff and only stores the differences between the files at
> the repository.  I could be wrong about that though.

No, but I believe this is how CVS works - SVN on the other hand only transmits 
the diffs in either direction, which is one of its selling points over CVS - 
iirc one of the things the SVN developers didn't like about CVS that caused 
them to make SVN in the first place.
(Note: this is from my admittedly faulty memory, so might not be correct.)

> 
> If you don't keep a repository locally then one way or another you will have
> to obtain a copy of the old version in order to just sync changes somehow..

This being, I believe, one of the main reasons SVN does keep a copy (of the 
latest-known-committed version) locally.

Some other good reasons are things SVN can then do offline, e.g.
	- generating diffs (what exactly did I change this time?)
	- reverting a file (nono, that's no good, let me start over...)

It can then also more easily update the working copy with new code from the 
repository, by seeing local diffs vs diffs in the repository.

It only keeps one previous version in the working copy though, so for 
comparing with or reverting to earlier versions, it must still be online.

> 
> Its an interesting thought.. does anyone know for sure if SVN sends back
> only the changes and how it does that if it doesn't fetch the previous
> version for comparison?

See above. :)

Just FYI, that it keeps a copy of the last version locally is something I've 
gotten quite familiar with through the use of grep... When I want to find 
something in the working copy, I usually  grep whatever | grep -v .svn  to 
avoid getting duplicates or finding things I've already changed locally :P

> 
> --Tim
> 
> btw.. I tend to over explain things so if I don't go far enough please ask
> me (I am trying to cut back)  ;-)
> Also, feel free to correct me if I state something wrong.. I like to be
> correct in my understanding and if I don't have all the necessary
> information I would like to know what I am missing out on.  ;-)
<snip>

Seconded. (iow, please apply the same to me.)

--EdorFaus