Hello Stefan Thank you for the quick and detailed response.
> > When changing the timestamp of a file to an earlier point in time and > leaving the file size unchanged yet altering the content, Subversion is > not always able to detect this change. > > The attached test case is the simplest we could come up with that > reliably reproduces the problem. > > Subversion uses timestamp and size as a short-cut for detecting unmodified > files. This saves Subversion from having to run a full content comparison > for every file in the working copy when 'svn status' is run under what > we'd consider "normal" conditions. You are artificially creating conditions > which fool Subversion into believing the file was not modified. Because the > timestamps and size checks which precede a full content comparison indicate > the file was not modified, the full content comparison is skipped and the > modification remains undetected. > > So, that's why you're seeing this behaviour. What's unclear is why you are > investigating this behaviour in the first place. What is your use case for > changing the file's content but leaving it's timestamp unchanged? The reason for investigating this situation was because a tool did exactly what touch does in the script. A timestamp was changed to a value in the past and a content change went undetected. Unfortunately the content change included a year (2015 -> 2016) and a version number (3.0 -> 4.0), so the file size did not change. I see the point in Subversion using timestamps to do a quick check for changed files. What puzzles me (see the script) is that the first change of the file (including a change of timestamp) is detected and reported by "svn status". However if after a commit the same procedure is repeated, Subversion does no longer detect the change. So the question should be changed: Instead of "why is the second change not reported" it should be "why is the first change reported". Relevant part of the script: echo "2" > x touch -m -t "201212310000.00" x svn -q status <-- this change is detected by Subversion (why?) svn commit -m "" x echo "3" > x touch -m -t "201212310000.00" x svn -q status <-- this change is not detected by Subversion (as expected) Regards, Peter.
