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I am currently developping an application in MS VS2010 that's based on a client-server architecture with one project for each part in VS. Until recently, they both had their own repositories in Hg, but I decided to move them together as there are quite a few files that are now shared.

I have been using hard links to make sure that the changes on one file are propagated to the same file in the other folder/project. However, if you clone the repository or check out from the online repository, the hard links are broken.

I have read up as much as I could on both soft & hard links with Hg, and neither of them seems to be a good, portable solution at this point. What method of sharing the files between the two projects would you recommend, keeping in mind that I would ideally like a clean structure that is also reflected in VS?

Best regards, Max.

awfm9
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You could use Mercurial's sub-repository feature to put your shared files in an external repository and share it in the places you need. There's also the guest repository extension, which is relatively newer and lighter-weight than a sub-repo.

Instead of solving it in version control, however, I would re-arrange your Visual Studio project so that your shared code compiles to an assembly that your client and server assemblies use and depend on. Share code at the assembly level, not the code level.

If you really must keep your existing structure, I would use NTFS junctions (similar to UNIX-style soft links) to junction in the shared code where it needs to go. You would then add these junctions to your repository's ignore list (in .hgignore). Create a PowerShell script that you and other developers can run that will initialize your repository with the right junctions.

Aaron Jensen
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  • The whole point was to have everything in one repository, so the first option is already not going to work. Also, sharing the code at assembly level doesn't make too much sense. The shared files are not libraries or similar, they are interfaces & modules used on both sides. Last but not least, correct me if I'm wrong, but using junctions this way would make it impossible to clone the repository and having it be a complete copy? It will also not be portable? – awfm9 Sep 01 '12 at 19:13