Help with finding a VCS that meets my needs

[xeddex]

Is there a VCS (or something else) that can be set up to have the following behavior.

I have DirectoryA that has two types of files. Files of type FilesABC and FilesXYZ. FilesABC should be under version control and FilesXYZ should not be under version control. If I put the FilesABC in DirectoryA under version control then when I "look at" DirectoryA through the eyes of the version control client I will only see the FilesABC. I won't see or be able to interact with FilesXYZ.

I know what you're saying. "Why not just put FilesXYZ under version control and you have no problem." Well FilesXYZ are generated by FilesABC. There may be hundreds of FilesXYZ for a single FilesABC. It is not practical to put FilesXYZ under version control and there is also no need what so ever. Just trust me when I say that the only files that correctly should be under version control are FilesABC.

So is there any versioning software out there that can show and interact with "versioned" and "non-versioned" files that are collocated? All the research I've done hasn't turned up anything. The behavior that I've seen has all been "put everything under version control".


The only solution I've been able to come up with is to have FilesXYZ be located in a new directory DirectoryB that would not be under version control. So I could have DirectoryA with FilesABC under version control. Then FilesABC generate FilesXYZ that are located in DirectoryB that is not under version control. The problem with that is that a developer would have to have one "under version control" file explorer application open as well as having a second "not under version control" file explorer application open at the same time. The other BIG problem is that it would be VERY easy for a developer to mistakenly access FilesABC through the "not under version control" file explorer application instead of the "under version control" file explorer application. That gives me nightmares. It would be much more elegant to have a single file explorer application open that could handle correctly interacting with both versioned and non-versioned collocated files.

any idea? thanks in advance.

 

[Thyme]

Can't you do an ignore in svn (and maybe cvs) for file types?

 

[Onund]

Originally posted by: xeddex
snip

I have DirectoryA that has two types of files. Files of type FilesABC and FilesXYZ. FilesABC should be under version control and FilesXYZ should not be under version control. If I put the FilesABC in DirectoryA under version control then when I "look at" DirectoryA through the eyes of the version control client I will only see the FilesABC. I won't see or be able to interact with FilesXYZ.

snip

The only solution I've been able to come up with is to have FilesXYZ be located in a new directory DirectoryB that would not be under version control. So I could have DirectoryA with FilesABC under version control. Then FilesABC generate FilesXYZ that are located in DirectoryB that is not under version control. The problem with that is that a developer would have to have one "under version control" file explorer application open as well as having a second "not under version control" file explorer application open at the same time. The other BIG problem is that it would be VERY easy for a developer to mistakenly access FilesABC through the "not under version control" file explorer application instead of the "under version control" file explorer application. That gives me nightmares. It would be much more elegant to have a single file explorer application open that could handle correctly interacting with both versioned and non-versioned collocated files.

any idea? thanks in advance.

Confused...

So you don't want to be able to see the non-revision controlled stuff but then you do?

 

[kamper]

@xeddex: I'm not aware of a system that will try to control files that you don't explicitly check in therefore pretty much any system would do. As Thyme says, you can usually configure filename patterns to ignore (certainly in svn and cvs) so that you don't get tedious informational messages about fileXYZ not being under version control.