[cvsnt] Changing file type for existing files

Mon Feb 16 13:13:47 GMT 2004

This has been saked on the cvsgui list today, and I have made some tests
which lead to the following questions concerning how to change the file
type for an existing file:

Consider the file Form.dfm, it is a Delphi form file and was originally
added to CVS when Delphi handled these files in binary format. Thus it
was added binary via WinCvs GUI.
The revision history is like this:
1.1 (bin)
1.2 (bin)
1.3 (bin)
1.4 (bin)
1.5 (bin)

Now the file can be handled by Delpi as text so we want to convert it to
text format, this is easy enough. But the file thus committed will still
retain its binary state in CVS. So we continue our revision history:
1.6 (bin, but really in text format)
1.7 (bin, but really in text format)
1.8 (bin, but really in text format)

Now we hear about the possibility to switch to the normal text mode for
this file so we want to do this (exact command needed). After the switch
I assume the revision continuation will be like this:
1.9 (text)
1.10 (text)
1.11 (text)

Now the crucial questions:

1) What is the exact correct command to give to make the switch 1.8->1.9
   that makes the file text from then on?

2) What will happen if I update an existing sandbox to retrieve the file
   in revision 1.3? Will it be marked in my sandbox as a text or binary
   file?

3) What happens if I have a branch based on 1.4, which needs to be merged
   into Trunk when HEAD is in 1.11?

4) What will happen if the branch is based on rev 1.7 instead?

My tests with CVS version 2.0.11 (client and server) are mixed blessings,
it seems like the file will be marked as -kt as opposed to nothing for a
normal text file. And the update to a binary revision does not change this
at least not in my WinCvs version.

It would be good to have this cleared up once and for all and then put it
into the Wiki since I have a feeling that there are a lot of potential such
files around (we sure do have them...).

Bo Berglund