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At my last job we did use CVS for website content.  I wasn't involved
with the process so I'm not sure if it was done manually as a part of
the build/rollout process (or whether it was scripted).  The idea was
eventually dropped... I think it must have been a manual process
because I think it was dropped because the process was too complicated
for people who were adding new content.

Not sure if Charles is on this list (the guy who did it); are you?  He
might have more insight into why we stopped doing it.  Also it was
just to one other machine that was then backed up to tape (so not
really distributed like your suggestion, Eric).

Kevin


On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 11:24:11 -0500, Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I read an interesting article about SVN at the following URL:
>
>    http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/06/svn_homedir.html
>
>  From the text:
>
>    I have not lost a file since 1999, and I don't intend to
>    ever again. Take one crucial file, like my resume or
>    sent-mail archive. I have a copy of that file on my desktop
>    computer in the .svn directory. There's another copy on my
>    home directory on my laptop, and yet another copy in the
>    Subversion repository on my server thousands of miles away.
>    People tell me that the best backups take no effort--so you
>    actually do them--and are widely scattered among many
>    machines and a lot of area so a local disaster won't knock
>    them out...
>
> The reason I think this is interesting is in the light of library
> preservation. Backing things up to tape is not archiving -- it's
> backing up. Putting things on CD is close to archiving, but the
> archivist needs to think about moving the data forward to newer mediums
> as older mediums become obsolete.
>
> The idea of using version control software to duplicate a person's data
> over many computers does really not do the archival thing, but it does
> to the preservation thing. One of the best ways to preserve a document
> is to duplicate it many times and put those duplicates in many places.
>
> Maybe us here in Library Land can figure out a way to use SVN to mirror
> copies of our websites or other digital information. Hmmm...
>
> --
> Eric Morgan
>