ZIP files in working tree

[Jelmer Vernooij]

Hi Martin,

On Thu, 2010-03-25 at 15:34 +0100, Martin von Gagern wrote:
> There is quite a number of file formats out there that are ZIP under the
> hood, but handled as a single document by some application, and usually
> have a file name extension other than ZIP. Examples are Microsoft OOXML,
> Google KMZ, Apple iWork formats, JAR files, and so on.
> 
> I often would have wished for a plugin to handle these things as a
> single ZIP in a working tree, but as a directory of members inside the
> branch. That would allow easier markup of changes, and increase the
> chances of successful three-way merges. It might also reduce space
> requirements to the actual modification, omitting impact caused by
> subsequent differences in the compressed data stream.
> 
> I guess I'd wish for merge conflicts to result in the use of directory
> layout in the working tree as well. When the conflicts are resolved,
> things should be converted back to ZIP again. The *.BASE, *.THIS and
> *.OTHER files should probably be available as ZIP.
> 
> I don't have the time to implement this, but I'd still be interested in
> your opinion.
> Do you think this useful?
> Feasible with the current bzr API?
> How would you want to configure such a plugin?
> Can you think of use cases likely to cause trouble I haven't thought of?
> Do you know of any efforts in that direction?
> 
> Of course, if anybody thinks this useful or interesting enough to
> warrant coding a plugin for it, I'd be a grateful tester. :-)
I think this would be very useful *and* feasible with the current Bazaar
API, as of recent Bazaar releases. Things like the NEWS merger or the
debian/changelog merger demonstrate that the required infrastructure for
custom mergers works well.

I'm not aware of anybody working on a custom merger for zip files
specifically.

Cheers,

Jelmer