Re: CVS and Word docs

[dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com]

cwebber -at- seagull -dot- nl wrote:
> 
> I"M...wondering whether CVS will be able to handle
> binary files since according to the development mgr,
> CVS would buckle under the weight of all the various
> docs that i have.

I've used CVS for .doc, .gif, .jpg, .xls, .ppt, and other binary files.  As you may know, you have to tell CVS a file is binary, so it doesn't try to merge changes.  There are two ways to do that.

When you add the file to the archive:

  cvs add -kb newFileName.ext
  cvs commit -m "comment" newFileName.ext

If you forget to specify the -kb (keyword: binary) option when you added the file:

  cvs admin -kb existingFileName.ext
  cvs commit -m "comment" existingFileName.ext

It's really important to get that -kb option specified, especially if you're the only person "getting" the file out of cvs.  If you don't, you'll keep working on your local copy, thinking everything is fine, until one day you *really* need to recover it from CVS:  then you'll realize that CVS has been saving a truncated and unusable file.

> 
> -CVS is not a lock system.

Right.  It's for revision control and (with text files) change merging.

> -it will not update changes made to an rtf of word doc, therefore i have
> to check out the rtf/doc, update it and if i wanted to merge any changes
> i'd have to use Word's Merge Changes tool. Is this correct?

CVS can merge *any* text file, and RTF is just text, so CVS will probably try to merge changes in your RTF files.  It *might* turn out OK, but it won't be doing what *Word* calls merging:  highlighting changes and so on.

I can tell you from personal experience that CVS works great with HTML, CSS, Java, TXT, and INI files.  You'll have to let *us* know how it works with RTF.  :)

> -Would CVS work perfectly with HTML (webhelp files?)?

HTML, yes.  Webhelp?  If they're plain text, probably.

> Currently only HTML
> help is generated from Robo's Single Source tool.

Forget extensions.  If it's stored as text characters, CVS can handle it.

> -Will CVS cause any unforeseen problems when i check in/out .rtfs or
> .docs?

See above.

> -Can anyone tell me if there are any major problems i have to look out
> for?

CVS records changes between versions of a file.  If the file is flagged with the binary keyword, the "delta" is the entire file, so that's what CVS stores.  Eventually, the archive gets huge.

When that happens, start using a new file name, or go into the "attic" and rename the archive for that file.  (This requires some CVS expertise, so it's something you'd want to go to the company's CVS administrator for help with.)

--David 
 
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