[tex-live] Distributed VCS (was: Debian freeze - last chance for changes)

[Peter Breitenlohner]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2012, Mojca Miklavec wrote:

> Meaning that you could create a git repository out of svn, pull/merge
> changes from Peter's branch and commit back to central SVN repository.
> Suboptimal, and you would have to convince all the other people from
> which you want to pull to use git.

Hi Mojca and Norbert,

the point is, that at the moment the changes live only in my local working
copy of the TL SVN (and in a tarball created from it via 'make dist').
They will all be committed to the TL SVN after the freeze and the four bug
fixes might make it into the branch2012 (that's for Karl to decide).

Let me add a few words about svn versus git.  They both have advantages and
disadvantages:

pro svn:
one can check out a subtree, very convenient for a huge monolithic
repository as TL

pro git:
git-log and git-blame work without network access

I think that partly explains why Xorg with its modular build procedure (*)
uses (a whole bunch of) git repos whereas TeX Live with its more monolithic
build procedure uses one svn repo.

(*) A complete Xorg build requires to alternatingly build and install
individual component as dictated by their dependencies.

Regards
Peter