Re: Subversion for backups?

[Robert Goldman <rpgoldman@sift.info>]

Matt Lundin <mdl <at> imapmail.org> writes:

> 
> Kyle Sexton <ks <at> mocker.org> writes:
> 
> > At Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:49:41 +0200,
> > Rainer Stengele <rainer.stengele <at> online.de> wrote:
> >> 
> >> I use subversion to backup and track my org files.
> >> I have a server in my office running the subversion server.
> >> 

> 
> This is a bit off-topic, but I found the separation of repository and
> working files in SVN a bit cumbersome after a while. You can't view your
> history when you aren't connected to the remote repository, your history
> is in only one place, you have duplicate files in the .svn directories,
> etc.
> 
> For this reason I highly recommend a distributed version control system
> such as git, bzr, etc.. You can start locally quite easily ("git init",
> "git add .", "git commit -a") and then decide to create a remote
> repository whenever you'd like.
> 
> In fact, there's a nice tutorial on this:
> 
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-vcs.php
> 
>

FWIW, my feelings are the exact opposite of Matt's --- I find the added
complexity of having multiple repositories to manage and the general added
complexity of git quite unwelcome.

If you are trying to keep multiple machines in sync, I find that a centralized
repository scheme is far simpler:  all you need to do is manage the relationship
between your working copies and the repository, and that relationship is a very
simple one.

If you have a distributed revision control system and multiple different
repositories, you must manage the relationship between the different
repositories and the relationship between those repositories and your working
copies.  Because of the peer-to-peer aspect, this is a complex quadratic mesh of
relationships to manage, instead of the simple linear relationship you have with
a centralized repository.

I would say that if (1) you generally are connected to the internet, with only
minor intervals offline and (2) have access to a hosted svn repository (so you
don't manage it yourself, and so that you can use the simple https protocol
instead of fussing with ssh tunneling), then you are likely to find svn much
simpler.  I am fortunate that both of these hold for me.

That said, if you are already a git wizard, this won't apply...

Best,
r