Requirements and pre-analysis for a cross desktop configuration infrastructure

[Avery Pennarun]

On Mon, Mar 21, 2005 at 04:31:11PM +0100, Philip Van Hoof wrote:

> The backup-format shouldn't only be XML. XML isn't a  very  good  format
> for  source-control.  An  example  backup-format  that  is  suitable for
> source-control are ini-files or  ini-file  style  backups. Since  binary
> data isn't going to be supported, it's doable to use that.

Again, ini-style files aren't the best choice if you really want this. 
Imagine this situation:

	[stuff]
	a = 1
	b = 2
	c = 3
	
	[fluff]
	a = 1
	b = 2
	c = 3
	
	[guff]
	a = 4
	b = 5
	c = 6
	
Now imagine we have one patch (patch-1), that changes "c = 3" to "c = 4" in
[fluff].  Imagine we have another patch (patch-2), that drops the [fluff]
section completely.

If we apply patch-1 on top of patch-2, we will accidentally change "c = 3"
to "c = 4" in the [stuff] section instead of the (now deleted) [fluff]
section!

If you're really serious about using a special format for change control,
don't make that mistake.  Include the full key on each line:

	stuff/a = 1
	stuff/b = 2
	stuff/c = 3
	
	fluff/a = 1
	fluff/b = 2
	fluff/c = 3
	
	guff/a = 4
	guff/b = 5
	guff/c = 6

Or use three separate files, stuff, fluff, and guff... but that's not very
convenient.
	
Have fun,

Avery