[DUG] Source Control - Sharing files between projects

[Berend de Boer]

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>>>>> "David" == David Brennan <dugdavid at dbsolutions.co.nz> writes:

    David> We currently use Visual SourceSafe (VSS) which it turns out
    David> (after some comparison with other options) is quite nice in
    David> terms of core feature set.  However is isn't a true
    David> database with atomic commits so there is that constant risk
    David> of database corruption if a network connection dies. We've
    David> been pretty luck so far but we have had one fairly minor
    David> scare. It also lacks strong support for branching and
    David> changeset type changes.

Hmm, "nice in terms of core feature set", but somehow misses all the
things that are essential to a decent source code control tool :-)

    David> So the current favourite is probably Perforce.

I use it, I love it.


    David> 1. Does anyone know how to reliably achieve similar shared
    David> file between folders functionality in Perforce?

It doesn't have this feature, because it doesn't work. With this
feature you can no longer reliable track changes to a branch or a
product.
 

    David> 2. Most development companies must have similar shared
    David> source files. How do you structure your projects and source
    David> files? (Note: I am talking about source files used by
    David> projects here, not files which are compiled into VCL
    David> packages)

I always branch every single library to a product or products
directory. So you know exactly what you've got. You don't have to
recompile (or find out with a full build) that your library update
broke dozens of other projects.

It allows very fine-grained and controlled migrations of libraries.

Read this portion of the SVN handbook: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/svn.advanced.vendorbr.html 

Which explains the concepts.


    David> So. what's a developer to do!?

Make sure he can track every single line of code change to a binary.

- -- 
Cheers,

Berend de Boer


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