Subversion's locking is purely a workflow management tool: it *is* simply a way to say "don't touch this file for a while".
Being a distributed VCS doesn't make this workflow management tool any less necessary. And it's convenient to have it integrated with the VCS so that "status" shows the status, and "commit" checks and releases the locks, and so on.
I wish I didn't have to keep defending subversion: git is really nice. But come on people, just be honest about what it can't do, and stop claiming those things are unnecessary!
Posted Apr 9, 2010 16:07 UTC (Fri) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458)
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As I said, the workflow might require it. But in a decentralized environment there simply can't be any "common rallying point" for all developers handled by the DVCS, so the tool itself can't help you here.
Not by a design flaw, but by fundamental reasons: The "locking" idea only makes sense if there is one master copy shared by all.