[darcs-users] Access control

[zooko at zooko.com]

> We currently use ssh-based access control for a project
> that is managed through darcs (www.carpetcode.org), but this does not
> differentiate between read and write access.

The server runs Unix, right?  So you can create a group called
"carpetcodew", make the carpet code repo owned by the group, and make it group
writeable.  To give everyone else read-only access to it, make it
world-readable.

An alternative strategy is to use pulls instead of pushes.  If there are 10
people whose changes should go into the central repo, then have each of them
run their own repo, and have a process which pulls changes from their repos to
the central repo..

That process could be time-based, or triggered, for example it could be
triggered by a CGI script, so that the work-flow for those people would be:

1.  Make changes.
2.  Record them to their own repo.
3.  Pull from the central repo, fix any conflicts, iterate until no conflicts.
4.  Click the button on the web site to have their changes pulled to the
    central repo.

> Are we the only institution with such a problem?

I suspect you're the first to use darcs for this, but on the other hand this
kind of access control is a very common problem in general.

Regards,

Zooko