Question

Integrating CVS-like Revision Control in Application

Asked by: harris_c

Hello Experts,

I am working on a project right now and it requires a 'cvs-like revision control' to be integrated into it.

PROJECT OVERVIEW:
1.  Client:  ColdFusion.
2.  Server: Oracle.
     2.1.   Sample Columns/Fields
              2.1.1.    ModuleName
              2.2.1.    SourceProgram
     2.2.   Sample Implementation/Data
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|ModuleName                      |    SourceProgram             |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SomeImportantModule       |   Imports System.IO        |
|                                           |   Public MyClass               |
|                                           |   {                                    |
|                                           |        return a+b                |
|                                           |   }                                    |
|----------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|AnotherImportantModule    |   #!/usr/lib/perl               |
|                                           |    ...                                  |
---------------------------------------------------------------------

3.  Data:    Text.

SCENARIO:
1.  Programmer A will change Update SourceProgram for the SomeImportantModule
     1.1.  Change "return a+b" to "return a*b"
             1.1.1.   Rev 1.0  will have return a+b
             1.1.2.   Rev 1.1  will have return a*b  
2.  Programmer A will save changes.
--------------------
3.  System will somehow be able to save the revisions made.
     3.1.  It is not advisable to save the whole module for every revision made.
             3.1.1.  Some are in thousands of lines of codes
             3.1.2.  Number of modules are in thousands and growing
     3.2.  I was thinking of storing the module in a CVS-like file where the header has all the changes made in every revision (saves disk space)
--------------------
4.  Programmer B wants to use Rev 1.0.  He must be able to pull out Rev 1.0 from the current Rev 2.0 (like CVS)
5.  No 2 people will be editing the same source code so concurrency is not a problem.


What I was thinking of is to have CF compare its current code against the database code, and create (or run a program) a CVS file based on the changes made and the output is saved back to the database.  If a user wants to view a code, it will somehow be able to parse it back (or run a program to do it) and display the latest revision.  If the user wants an older revision, then the system must be able to parse it.  When the user saves changes, CF will run the CVS file maker to create the CVS file and this is what is saved in the database.

Is there a better way to do this?

For this to work, I need information on CVS file parsers (something that could spit out a revision if specified) and CVS file maker (something that would require the *old* and *new* files as arguments and outputs the CVS file)

So the table should look like this:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|ModuleName                      |    SourceProgram              |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|SomeImportantModule       |  @d5 (cvs remarks here!) |
|                                           |                                         |
|                                           |   Imports System.IO         |
|                                           |   Public MyClass                |
|                                           |   {                                     |
|                                           |        return a+b                 |
|                                           |   }                                     |
|----------------------------------|----------------------------------|
|AnotherImportantModule    |   @a (cvs remarks here!)  |
|                                            |                                         |
|                                            |   #!/usr/lib/perl               |
|                                           |    ...                                  |
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Running the cvs program is not advisable since it creates a lot of different problems.





Thank you in advance!

hec",)

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Asked On
2004-02-17 at 18:51:48ID20888717
Tags

cvs

,

sourceprogram

Topic

Miscellaneous Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
50
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: mvoelkerPosted on 2004-02-18 at 08:40:24ID: 10394031

Geeez, you're serious about this, aren't you? You're going to write a version control system on your own which is an insanely complex task. I strongly suggest running an already established version control system (have a look at subversion if you don't like cvs and don't want to pay for it - http://subversion.tigris.org)

If you really want to code something on your own - here's how you most pressingn problems could be solved:

1. Add an additional column to the main database table for the revision (and probably date, comment and so on). The primary key for a certain version would then be the module name and its revision. The client software that retrieves/stores versions will have to take care of assigning new version numbers as appropriate (you could also use stored procedures if you like).

2. The client will have to use utitlities like the unix diff/patch (available for windows) to determine the differences between two files. The client would use the edited file, retrieve the latest version from the version control system, compare them using diff, prepare a patch against the latest version with diff and store only that patch as the new revision.

3. When doing a checkout/update operation, your client will retrieve the *oldest* revision (which is not a patch) *and* all available patches, apply those to the old version and thus get the latest version.

Optimizations
- You could reverse the process and always store the latest version of a file and apply backward-patches.
- You could implement a "cache" table for the latest version of files (storing the already patched files), saving time on checkouts

The advantage of this approach is that it saves a lot of space in your database, since you're only storing one version of the file and lots of patches. On the downside all operations are going to take longer the longer your project runs (the more revisions you have). And there are many more problems ahead (branches, tags, releases, packages,...). Be warned - you're in trouble if you write your own version control system (even if it starts for only a few people and a small project - it's gonna grow faster than you like).

You've been warned - best of luck! Feel free to ask for clarifications,

 - michael

 

by: harris_cPosted on 2004-02-18 at 09:23:57ID: 10394522

Hi mvoelker,

Points taken.  Thanks!

I have evaluated all the cvs I could find but unfortunately I cannot find the functionality I need.

The functionality I need is really straightforward.  I just want to store changes and be able to produce any selected revision - no branches, tags, releases, etc.  

Here is a program I want (with a little tweaking) but I do not know the language :(
http://www.lyra.org/pipermail/viewcvs-dev/2000-April/000057.html



Basically, it must run from the command line, ie.

cvsParser someCVSfile.c,v 1.1  --> this will spit out the revision 1.1 from the RAW CVS file someCVSfile.c,v

cvsMake   someCVSfile_changed.c  someCVSfile.c  someCVSfile.c,v   -->  this will merge changes made in someCVSfile_changed.c to the latest revision someCVSfile.c and produce the RAW CVS file someCVSfile.c,v


I think it is not hard to code the stuff, but I am hoping somebody has done this already to save me the trouble.


It will be seldom (~ once/quarter) that programmers want to retrieve past revisions.



hec",)

 

by: mvoelkerPosted on 2004-02-19 at 06:19:27ID: 10402654

Would you use cvs (or another system) if it did what you described?

 - michael

 

by: harris_cPosted on 2004-02-19 at 16:16:47ID: 10408220

Hi Michael,

Would you use cvs (or another system) if it did what you described?   YES.

BTW, I already found a solution that uses UNIX scripts.

I will just close this one and give you points for your recommendations.


Thanks!
hec",)

 

by: harris_cPosted on 2004-02-19 at 16:32:38ID: 10408324

The solution I was talking about needs to be ported to Windows/DOS platform.

Maybe you can help me:
http://oldlook.experts-exchange.com:8080/Programming/Programming_Platforms/Unix_Programming/Q_20891473.html


hec",)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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