[MERGE] per-user file properties

[Martin Pool]

On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 8:35 PM, Nicholas Allen <allen at ableton.com> wrote:
>  Hi Ian,
>
>  How does this work on a repository basis? It is not a good idea to
>  expect every user to configure this correctly and some files with the
>  same pattern may have different line ending styles in different
>  repositories. Storing the line ending style in the branch itself would
>  be much better and more flexible. A property should be really tied to
>  the file and not stored somewhere else. Otherwise when the file moves or
>  the extension changes then the properties may also change.

Yes, I completely agree that this needs to be in the branch too.  I
believe the per-user configuration is only ever intended to be a first
step.  To me it seems like we should just also look for this file in
the branch but perhaps being able to test this interactively first
would be good.

One issue that has been raised is whether adding this to the branch
should require a special marker or a new branch format to prevent
people using a client that doesn't understand the file.  My feeling is
that this is not necessary: if you use an old client you just won't
have these rules enforced.  Sure this causes some disruption, but not
necessarily more than being unable to act on the branch at all.

>  | A future enhancement may also support .bzrproperties files in places
>  | other than BAZAAR_HOME. If and when we decide to do that, I think that's
>  | a small change code wise (over and above this patch). For now, the
>  | consensus is that we should first gain experience with a simple
>  | implementation of file properties (e.g. the one proposed by this patch)
>  | before introducing the additional complexity implied by the various
>  | extended schemes.

-- 
Martin <http://launchpad.net/~mbp/>