newbie question

[Eric Hanchrow]

>>>>> "Vim" == Vim Visual <vim.unix at googlemail.com> writes:

    Vim> 1- Where do you have your repository?  

I know you didn't ask me, but I'll answer anyway.

My repository is on my home machine, which is a *nix box which is up
pretty much all the time.  It has a static IP address and a nice,
short, easy-to-remember vanity domain name.  It also allows incoming
ssh access, and I access the Subversion repository via svn+ssh://.
                                                
    Vim> From your text I think you have only one main repository and
    Vim> then make "working copies" from it.  

That's the way Subversion is designed to work.
                                              
    Vim> The most logical thing would be to have the repository also
    Vim> in your laptop, right?  

Not to me, it isn't, because the laptop is rarely "up", and rarely is
connected to a known IP address.

    Vim> 3- Therefore I guess the best solution would be to have the
    Vim> main repository somewhere in the web 

As above, that's what I do.
                                              
    Vim> but then the privacy issue arises.  

It does indeed :-|
                                             
    Vim> Can you protect/encrypt the main repository somehow

Subversion itself doesn't provide any support for this, but I suppose
you could put the repository on an encrypted file system.  However,
that's unsatisfying for two reasons:

* Few ISPs offer an encrypted file system -- I've never heard of a
  single one, in fact

* Even if you do use an encrypted file system, that doesn't provide
  total privacy; it merely protects your data from non-root users on
  the box, and from the people who can access the box's backups.  It
  will not, however, protect your data from a nasty administrator who
  spies on the encryption software, or who has replaced the encryption
  software with a subtly-modified version that does ... whatever it
  wants with your data.

In practice, though, I deal with the lack of privacy by (in addition
to running the subversion repository on my own machine) simply not
checking in anything that's too sensitive.  And if I ever choose to
move the repository to an ISP, it will be an ISP that I trust.

    Vim> 4- This implies that you work with svn add, svn delete, svn
    Vim> move, svn copy etc etc...  

Yes
                                    
    Vim> Are you working with aliases for those commands (alias cp =
    Vim> 'svn copy')??

No.  However, I use various Subversion "clients" in addition to typing
commands at the command line.  See
http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dgp7832_2f6pxbq for my opinions of
some of the many Subversion clients.

    Vim> so that you never forget telling svn what has been changed?

That's not a problem; the "svn st" command will always remind you of
what has been changed.
                                                                    
    Vim> Why cannot svn figure out automagically what has been added/
    Vim> removed etc?  

http://subversion.tigris.org/faq.html#wc-change-detection

-- 
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that any language in
possession of a rich syntax, must be in want of a rewrite.
        -- Piers Cawley