Re: NTEmacs, CVS, PCL-CVS, Version Control and ^M?

[Phillip Lord]

>>>>> "Eli" == Eli Zaretskii <eliz@elta.co.il> writes:

  >> From: Phillip Lord <p.lord@russet.org.uk> Newsgroups:
  >> gnu.emacs.help Date: 25 Apr 2003 12:43:23 +0100
  >>
  Eli> I really don't know why did you say that.  For example, Emacs
  Eli> developers use both Unix and Windows CVS clients
  >>
  >> On the same files? I should be clear here, when I say "files" I
  >> mean work files, not a repository file.
 

  Eli> Most, if not all, of Windows CVS clients work just fine with
  Eli> Unix-style EOLs.  When you checkin such files, what you get in
  Eli> the repository is Unix EOLs.

Maybe. All I can say is that I have seen problems with some clients
checking in dos terminated files. Mostly this seems to come from
windows boxes. 


  Eli> The issue of editing the same files from Windows and Unix
  Eli> machines is not really related to what we were talking about,
  Eli> but if Emacs is used on all the machines, it is solved almost
  Eli> by default--the only non-default setting is a proper definition
  Eli> of untranslated filesystems, as I wrote elsewhere in this
  Eli> thread.

Indeed, getting untranslated filesystems right helps a lot. 


  >> Now there are other problems besides this. I checked out a file
  >> from CVS yesterday, under unix, and the resultant file had dos
  >> terminators.

  Eli> You should ideally have your CVS setup in such a way that this
  Eli> does not happen.  A Unix-EOL file should be checked out into a
  Eli> workfile with with Unix EOLs.  If worse comes to worst, there
  Eli> are programs to convert between the EOL formats without
  Eli> changing the file's timestamp.

The fundamental difficulty, is I think, that there are so many
possible combinations of tools. I use emacs, on unix, with
vc/pcl-cvs. Others use emacs, on windows, and WinCVS for all their
versioning. Others use emacs, on windows, cygwin cvs. And others, of
course, do not use emacs at all, god rest their souls. 

Ideally you are right, CVS should be setup so that EOL terminators are
not a problem. But this is not the ideal world, and I have found
recurrent problems with this. And sometimes inconsistent problems. I
still find that, occasionally, DOS terminators turn up. Sometimes on
the entire file (in which case emacs handles it gracefully, with just
a "DOS" sign at the bottom), and other times in just part of the file
(in which case you get Ctrl-M's appearing). From hanging around on the
cvs newsgroup for a while, I see that others have problems also.

I'm just relating my experience. I generally find that getting it all
working is manageable, but not entirely transparent (with emacs, or
without!). Galen, it would appear, has found a similar thing.

Phil