[cvsnt] No need to tag the entire repository and waste all that spacetime

[Victor A. Wagner Jr.]

Although I can think of no  real reason to tag the entire repository, it 
seems to me that in addition to taking a fair amount of time, it's going to 
add a fair amount of space to the repository.

It seems to me that the effect people would be looking for is to restore 
some sandbox to the state of the entire repository at some unlikely time in 
the future (or are there people who keep only _one_ project per repository?).

Since all a tag does is create a synonym (in _each_ file (the space part of 
the spacetime mentioned in the subject)) for some (generally the current) 
revision, it's clear that any process that's going to "mark" each file will 
take significant time.

I suspect that administrators would really prefer a way to mark the 
repository as it is "right now".

That being the case, why not simply record the date/time with the "name" 
you want to give to the 'tag' someplace, and timestamp it.  Last I checked, 
one could do checkouts and updates using a datetime as an argument.  Yes it 
would be a two step process to "get" all the relevant files from the 
repository, but the "tagging" would take the time of doing a commit on a 
single file (if you put your "tag name" in the file before committing it.

Alternatively, in case you're _really, really_ in love with tags, you could 
force some file to commit (using the -f option) then rtag _it_.  I'd 
suggest using one of the files that exists in the CVSROOT if you're going 
to do such a stunt (it likely is changeable only by admins already).

surely it would be rather easy to put together a small script that will do 
either the "tagging" or the two steps necessary to update/checkout.


Victor A. Wagner Jr.      http://rudbek.com
The five most dangerous words in the English language:
               "There oughta be a law"