#94 Document that svn:externals update behaves differently within and outside imported directory

[Anonymous]

Originally created by: gaff...@live.com
Originally owned by: cmpilato

Version Control with Subversion
For Subversion 1.6
(Compiled from [r3774])
The section "Advanced Topics" -> "Externals Definitions"

The following behaviour should be better documented:

The effect of an "svn update" command on a directory imported using the svn:externals property is dependent upon whether the command is given outside of, or within, the imported directory.
If the update command is given outside of the imported directory, the imported directory is updated to the version given in the svn:externals definitions.  If the update command is given withing the imported directory, the imported directory is updated to its head version.

That is, if you have an svn:external with the value "-[r57] <path to source in some other repository> my_import" and you do an "svn update" within my_import, what you will get is the head version of that directory in the source repository.

Please describe the problem you found.  Try to avoid referring to "page
numbers", as those are subject to change over time.  If you need to, quote
the book paragraph(s) that are incorrect, and recommend corrections.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: cmpilato

Hrm.  Good point.

Owner: cmpilato

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: cmpilato

I added the following as a warning in the Externals Definitions section:

"External working copies are still completely self-sufficient working copies. You can operate directly on them as you would any other working copy. This can be a handy feature, allowing you to examine an external working copy independently of any primary working copy whose svn:externals property caused its instantiation. Be careful, though, that you don't inadvertently modify your external working copy in subtle ways that cause problems. For example, while an externals definition might specify that the external working copy should be held at a particular revision number, if you run svn update directly on the external working copy, Subversion will oblige, and now your external working copy is out of sync with its declaration in the primary working copy. Using svn switch to directly switch the external working copy (or some portion thereof) to another URL could cause similar problems if the contents of the primary working copy are expecting particular contents in the external content."

Thanks for the suggestion.

Labels: Milestone-en-1.6
Status: Fixed