Datasheet

“main” (Installation and Administration) — 2004/6/25 — 13:29 — page 559 — #585
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23
File Synchronization
23.2.4 Conflicts: Incidence and Solution
Conflicts only rarely occur in subversion or CVS, even when several peo-
ple work on one large program project. This is because the documents are
merged on the basis of individual lines. When a conflict occurs, only one
client is affected. Usually conflicts in unison or CVS can easily be resolved.
Unison reports conflicts, allowing the affected files to be excluded from the
synchronization. However, changes cannot be merged as easily as in sub-
version or CVS.
There is no conflict handling in rsync. The user is responsible for not ac-
cidentally overwriting files and manually resolving all possible conflicts.
To be on safe side, a versioning system like RCS can be additionally em-
ployed.
23.2.5 Selecting and Adding Files
In its standard configuration, Unison synchronizes an entire directory tree.
New files appearing in the tree are automatically included in the synchro-
nization.
In subversion or CVS, new directories and files must be added explic-
itly using the command svn add or cvs add, respectively. This results in
greater user control over the files to synchronize. On the other hand, new
files are often overlooked, especially when the question marks in the out-
put of svn update and svn status or cvs update are ignored due to
the large number of files.
23.2.6 History
An additional feature of subversion or CVS is that old file versions can be
reconstructed. A brief editing remark can be inserted for each change and
the development of the files can easily be traced later based on the content
and the remarks. This is a valuable aid for theses and program texts.
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SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server