#566: Support compressed (tar.gz) testsuite data --------------------------+------------------------------------------------- Reporter: knarf | Owner: Type: enhancement | Status: review Priority: minor | Milestone: ET_2011_11 Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
Comment (by hinder):
I think that keeping the tar files in version control is bad because you lose the ability to diff the files. When regenerating data, you cannot easily see what has changed as a final check before committing in your version control tool. It also means that regenerating test data is more tedious, as there are more steps to go through (making the directory, tarring). This might not seem like much but when you are doing this for four or five tests at a time it quickly adds up.
I propose that the tests are kept in version control as individual files. We can provide a script/make target which tarzips up all the test output and keeps the tar files in parallel with the untarred files. Users who run into problems on remote machines can use this script. When syncing, these users can exclude the individual files, and sync the tar files. We could provide an example rsync-excludes pattern in !SimFactory for this. The current patch would enable Cactus to recognise the tar files on the remote machine and use them. This has the following advantages:
* The current simple behavior does not change for most users; * Regenerating test data is no more tedious than it currently is; * The version control system will have maximum knowledge about what has changed between two commits; * Syncing will transmit only the compressed single files, solving both the space and file number problem on the remote system.