[darcs-users] Any darcs 2 incompatibilities when using the old fashioned repo format?

Max Battcher me at worldmaker.net
Thu Aug 14 12:58:01 UTC 2008


Hey Mark, since no one else has answered your queries I'll throw in my 2 
sense...  I'm not an expert, but I did happen to write the section in 
the docs you mentioned, so maybe I know what I'm talking about...

Mark Stosberg wrote:
> I would really like to start using a darcs 2.0.2 binary with a repo that still
> must support (at least for now) a darcs 1.0.6 client.
> 
> I have already used it some and have seen no problems.
> 
> I would just like some confirmation: Is there anything I could do with a Darcs
> 2.0.2 binary that would modify a old-fashioned repo format in such a way that a
> 1.0.6 binary would be confused with talking to it (mostly pulling from it) ?
>
> I just want to avoid getting "stuck" by finding that we've somehow created a
> patch which can't be pulled.

AFAIK, darcs 2 working with a darcs 1 repository should be entirely 
backwards compatible and you should not see it generate a patch that the 
1.0.6 binary won't work with...

> And is there is any minimum version of darcs 1 compatibility for using the
> "hashed" repo format? We may convert to 'hashed' if the darcs 1 binary/ darcs 1
> repo could could still and push from it.
> 
> These docs don't mention a minimum version:
> http://www.darcs.net/manual/node7.html#SECTION00730000000000000000

Ah, chalk that down to something that I thus far failed to convert from 
my blog post on the subject [1] into the darcs documentation.  (Even 
though I have auto-generated LaTeX of the tables at the bottom of the 
post I couldn't seem to wrangle them into the darcs documentation...) 
Suggestions would be appreciated, however.

Basically: you can't use a hashed repository directly with a darcs 1 
binary, but you can (and I believe should) use it under Darcs 2 as your 
working repository format.  You'll get some of the benefits of hashed 
format, your partner with darcs 1.0.6 won't, unfortunately.  Darcs 2 
will push/pull patches between hashed and darcs 1 repositories.  (In 
essence hashed format is darcs 1 format with a new pristine format and 
new patch store and caching, but the patches themselves are the same...)

[1] http://blog.worldmaker.net/2008/aug/04/users-guide-darcs-2/


--
--Max Battcher--
http://www.worldmaker.net/


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