Question

I have a simple inheritance hierarchy of py scripts
say Cat and CoolCat and FurryCat. This files must (according to the voices in my head) be put under two different folders in SVN, where the Cat module has to be both in FurryCat‘s dir and the same for CoolCat. -> so I have the same file duplicated in the repository.

https://svn/.../FurryCat
    /FurryCat.py
    /Cat.py

https://svn.../CoolCat
    /CoolCat.py
    /Cat.py

We are all busy humans so we forget to commit the file twice and so it is bad to find out they are out-of-sync so now you have to observe the svn log and so forth. In my experience, merging python code almost always turns out to be a manual merge.

im guessing it’s some

svn propedit svn:externals ...

?

Answer 1

I went down the svn:externals path and this is how you make it :
Basically, when you make an external definition, file appears in the two places.
It’s like quantum theory where particle exist in many places at once.

This is the best tutorial I found on this.
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/Short-tutorial-on-svn-propset-for-svnexternals-p.html

What confused me, was the difference of defining, between a folder and a file.

common https://svn/path/to/common_folder

-> Folder ‘common’ created with the files.

coolest_script_ever.py https://svn/deliciouscripts/awesome.py

-> The file gets into the current dir.

Whats the confusion ? for me it was confusing, as I accustomed to that when using SVN ‘you always check out a folder’.

Generally to get rid of a bad svn:externals definition you should do a

svn propdel svn:externals .

In the work dir.
But better make it work the first time… and revert if you make a mistake.