Dealing with large directories in a checkout
- by Eric
I am trying to come up with a version control process for a web app that I work on. Currently, my major stumbling blocks are two directories that are huge (both over 4GB). Only a few people need to work on things within the huge directories; most people don't even need to see what's in them. Our directory structure looks something like:
/
--file.aspx
--anotherFile.aspx
--/coolThings
----coolThing.aspx
--/bigFolder
----someHugeMovie.mov
----someHugeSound.mp3
--/anotherBigFolder
----...
I'm sure you get the picture.
It's hard to justify a checkout that has to pull down 8GB of data that's likely useless to a developer. I know, it's only once, but even once could be really frustrating for someone (and will make it harder for me to convince everyone to use source control). (Plus, clean checkouts will be painfully slow.) These folders do have to be available in the web application.
What can I do? I've thought about separate repositories for the big folders. That way, you only download if you need it; but then how do I manage checking these out onto our development server? I've also thought about not trying to version control those folders: just update them directly on the web server... but I am not enamored of this idea. Is there some magic way to simply exclude directories from a checkout that I haven't found? (Pretty sure there is not.)
Of course, there's always the option to just give up, bite the bullet, and accept downloading 8 useless GB.
What say you? Have you encountered this problem before? How did you solve it?
