Marking files as binary in CVS
When multiple people are working with CVS, what can sometimes happen when you do a “cvs update” is that binary files get “merged” as if they were text files. Naturally, this can cause some file types to become corrupt.
To avoid this happening, type:
$ cvs admin -kb path/to/binary.file
Usually, you have a large number of these files (in my case, I had about ~1000 zip files). So combining the above with Bash’s find can be very useful. Assuming you are in the working directory:
$ find . -name "*.ext" -exec cvs admin -kb {} \;
The “{}” substitutes the found file, which CVS marks as binary for you.
There is also a handy guide on working with binary files in CVS.
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August 23rd, 2011 at 2:27 am
You are using CSV? How very 1990s of you. Henceforth, before reading your blog, I’m going to put a short-sleeve-tshirt on over a long-sleeve-tshirt and listen to some Pearl Jam
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:28 am
I’m not using CVS by choice… the w3c made me!
September 2nd, 2011 at 2:33 pm
You should tell them about git, someday
Or mercurial, to not scare them with new syntax.
September 11th, 2011 at 2:03 am
They know
They are using mercurial now but I can’t move my stuff over as it’s all interlinked.