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Subject:Re: CVS and Word docs From:dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 16 Oct 2002 09:43:35 -0700
Megan Golding wrote:
>
> > - apparently when changes are committed once a day, the archive copy
> > gets bigger and slower as well.
>
> Hrmm...I don't think that's the case. What gets large is the directory
> holding all earlier revisions of the file. Let's say you commit a 50
> page Word manual on day 1 and continue writing and commiting for 10
> days. The repository will store 10 versions of the manual.
Yes, it stores 10 versions, but they're all in a single physical file. It's not a Word .doc file, of course, but a CVS archive.
> That means
> your required disk space will mushroom with each day that passes (this
> isn't the case with text files, by the way).
Yes, it's true of text files, too, because the deltas take up space--granted, not as much space as saving the complete text of every version.
>
> There are two ways to solve this growing repository problem:
>
> 1. commit to CVS only when you've reached logical stopping points.
> Finishing a chapter, completing a draft...those sorts of events. Think
> of commits as points of development you may want to visit again in the
> future.
I commit to CVS *at least* once a day, because that's how often the CVS server is backed up to tape (unlike my laptop, which isn't backed up automatically).
The cost is disk space on the server, and performance of commits and updates (as explained in my earlier message).
>
> 2. According to the information on
>http://ccvs.cvshome.org/fom/cache/37.html
> you may want to clean out unnecessary revisions to prevent filling up
> the server's hard drive.
Yep, as noted above.
>
> *NOTE* When you add a binary file to CVS, be sure to use the '-kb' flag
> so CVS knows its binary. Otherwise, CVS will assume its a text file and
> it may mess your Word doc up.
Not "may"--"will." As I wrote before, you may not realize it until something requires you to get a version from CVS, at which point you'll discover that there's nothing usable stored there!
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