[cvsnt] ascii/binary property

[Bo Berglund]

On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 21:15:57 +0200, "patrick goovaerts"
<patrick at pgoovaerts.be> wrote:

>Sorry, let's try to rephrase my question:
>
>I know what binary files are, I know what ascii files are but what effect 
>will it have when I change the ascii property to binary?
>What is the difference between the binary/ascii properties (beside of being 
>ascii-text files and binary files)?
>
A binary file is stored and retrieved as-is (byte by byte).

A text file (ascii) is stored with Unix line endings on the server and
are retrieved with the line endings appropriate for the client
operating system. So a file checked out to a Linux and a Windows
machine will be different by the line endings (LF on Linux, CRLF on
Windows).

A binary file that has been added as text will get all CRLF sequences
changed to LF when stored into CVS and thus the file is destroyed!

A text file added as binary will not be possible to diff or merge
because CVS cannot handle binary files that way.


/Bo Berglund