[darcs-users] dvcs article

[Erik Schnetter]

On Jan 31, 2009, at 19:48:55, Gwern Branwen wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 10:25 PM, Isaac Dupree
> <ml at isaac.cedarswampstudios.org> wrote:
>> Max Battcher wrote:
>>> The only remaining argument is space efficiency ... and if you are
>>> worried about working tree space on a desktop/laptop then you  
>>> probably
>>> have other problems to worry about...
>>
>> GHC working tree is 100s of megabytes.  I make a few branches to  
>> hack on a few
>> features, it gets into the gigabytes.  Then it comes time to do  
>> backups, and
>> my backup space *is* rather limited (best current options are a  
>> shared backup
>> disk, and DVD-Rs).  I have gigabytes of hard-to-compress but highly  
>> redundant
>> stuff lying around, when the only changes worth backing up should  
>> take up an
>> amount of *kilobytes*!  As someone who used to hack on things more,  
>> I have to
>> say I am very relieved not to be carrying around those gigabytes of  
>> almost-
>> untouched-but-still-worth-backing-up data anymore, one of the  
>> greatest weights
>> I've felt of living in the open-source world.  (ways in which we  
>> drive away
>> people who like using low-powered systems.)  I think it's worth  
>> some energy to
>> mitigate.  (although there's nothing obvious for darcs to do other  
>> than
>> continuing becoming a well-optimized RCS in patch-interface and code)
>>
>> I think though, these repos of mine could be archived with context- 
>> files and
>> darcs-send stuff (and hopefully then be able to reproduce it from  
>> the current
>> versions of public repos)... if only there was something in the  
>> darcs manual
>> explaining how to think that way. (maybe there is, I haven't looked  
>> for some
>> time)
>>
>> -Isaac
>
> This is of course the obvious question, but - I take it there was some
> reason neither that the linking or no-pristine features didn't help
> you? (I mean http://darcs.net/manual/node4.html#SECTION00460000000000000000
> )

When I make backups, I ensure that hardlinked files are only stored  
once (using rsync's -H option).

Another option for you would be to use git to store all trees; git  
stores identical files only once, greatly reducing disk space  
requirements.  It is probably necessary to run "git gc" to achieve this.

-erik

-- 
Erik Schnetter <schnetter at cct.lsu.edu>   http://www.cct.lsu.edu/~eschnett/

My email is as private as my paper mail.  I therefore support encrypting
and signing email messages.  Get my PGP key from <http://pgp.mit.edu>.



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