[Box Backup] Long time since last release....

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Ben, Martin and all,

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005, Martin Ebourne wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-08-16 at 17:43 +0100, Ben Summers wrote:
>> I am considering using a CVS server on Sourceforge, importing the
>> latest version, and then inviting the contributers to commit their
>> changes. I'm not sure what to do about style and quality issues though.
[...]
> I'm sure that opening up some kind of repository with committer access
> is the way to go though, that's what open source is all about.

I would definitely second this, and suggest Have you considered having 
that you only give a few trusted developers commit rights, requiring them 
to scrutinise patches before committing them. I think that many projects 
with multiple developers work effectively this way.

> This would be a good start, but I would prefer you used something a bit
> better than CVS. Personally I have imported recent versions of box into
> a local SVN repository and make all my mods in there, from which I
> generate patches. Does sourceforge provide anything other than CVS these
> days? Some of the other free hosting sites do. I don't think it really
> matters which version control system you use, as long as it's recent,
> they're all loads better than CVS.

I think that Sourceforge would be a good choice, and although they 
currently only support CVS, I don't mind too much. It's rare that its 
limitations are a major problem, although they frequently annoy. :-)

I had as many problems with Subversion as with CVS, including infinite 
repository growth and difficulty of pruning. On the other hand, it does 
have a nice Eclipse interface. Darcs looks like a good contender as well.

Sourceforge apparently does intend to support Subversion:

> Subversion Service:  The research, analysis, and support gear-up needed 
> to implement a Subversion service at SourceForge.net is now in progress. 
> As with all SourceForge.net services, extensive analysis and testing 
> must be performed to verify suitable levels of stability and scalability 
> before a service can be rolled-out.
>
> We are expecting the initial phases of this effort to last several 
> weeks, to be followed by the implementation of a testing environment 
> which will be used for a live beta test by specific selected projects. 
> Pending successful scalability testing, service details will be 
> finalized and service will be offered to all projects. (Refreshed 
> 2005-04-21, to show continued in-progress status.)

[https://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?group_id=1&docid=2352]

> Quite possibly. The thing I'd be most interested in writing would be to
> add inotify support since it will be in the mainline Linux kernel soon.
> This would let bbackupd be fed lists of changed files real time from the
> kernel, and avoid the need to do disk scanning (which has sucked for at
> least 20 years now :)).

That's a great idea :-) I would also like to see similar support on Win32, 
and the BSDs, if possible. I'm sure the APIs exist, but I'm not very 
familiar with win32 development.

Cheers, Chris.
-- 
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  / __/ / ,__(_)_  | Chris Wilson <0000 at qwirx.com> - Cambs UK |
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