Bazaar

Support for CAD use case

Asked by Stephane Mutz

I'm using version control in a mixed hardware / software design project. Bazaar provides great features for the SW side but it has some limitations when it comes to managing hardware design data.
The key issue is that HW design uses binary / database type files which are not mergeable. It requires an RCS type workflow with tight locking / unlocking to enforece lock-step modifications. SVN partially support this workflow with some limitations.
It would be great to have one VCS that can cover both workflows.

What's missing in Bazaar at the moment is:
- a lock / unlock feature in checkouts (applicable in a centralized workflow use case)
- a way to make locked files unmodifiable by the user (e.g. using a different user ID) This is where SVN has a limitation
  (the issue is not so much users being stupid but CAD tools happily changing file permissions)
- The possibility for stacked branches to inherit the locking status (so a user can still try different things in parallel)
- a way to avoid data duplication when files are not modified between branches or against a reference branch on a local filesystem

Is that something that could become part of Bazaar roadmap?

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
Bazaar Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
John A Meinel (jameinel) said : 		#1

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 2013-04-17 19:56, Stephane Mutz wrote:
> New question #226915 on Bazaar:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/bzr/+question/226915
>
> I'm using version control in a mixed hardware / software design
> project. Bazaar provides great features for the SW side but it has
> some limitations when it comes to managing hardware design data.
> The key issue is that HW design uses binary / database type files
> which are not mergeable. It requires an RCS type workflow with
> tight locking / unlocking to enforece lock-step modifications. SVN
> partially support this workflow with some limitations. It would be
> great to have one VCS that can cover both workflows.
>
> What's missing in Bazaar at the moment is: - a lock / unlock
> feature in checkouts (applicable in a centralized workflow use
> case) - a way to make locked files unmodifiable by the user (e.g.
> using a different user ID) This is where SVN has a limitation (the
> issue is not so much users being stupid but CAD tools happily
> changing file permissions) - The possibility for stacked branches
> to inherit the locking status (so a user can still try different
> things in parallel) - a way to avoid data duplication when files
> are not modified between branches or against a reference branch on
> a local filesystem
>
> Is that something that could become part of Bazaar roadmap?
>

A while ago I started prototyping "bzr-filelocking" to handle some of
this. Essentially it was meant to be advisory locking (not mandatory,
but allowing people to coordinate things like this).

The code is available here as a bzr plugin:
  https://code.launchpad.net/~jameinel/+junk/file_locking

I'm pretty sure it isn't quite complete, but the basics of having a
central location where you announce what items you are locking gives
should be fleshed out.

However, I think someone has done a more complete version of it. At
least there was a bug recently about a plugin that did per-file
locking and how it integrated with bzr itself, but I haven't been able
to look up the name. (It was something like bzr-r*, bzr-request,
bzr-?, but I can't remember it now.)

John
=:->
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.13 (Cygwin)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/

iEYEARECAAYFAlF5CgwACgkQJdeBCYSNAAMp1QCgrkLcRU1THKcIcOT002ZWQNwh
acQAmwXE8yR8UKmcp/hVfzDsKTmvLoOa
=NwWJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Stephane Mutz for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.