[viewvc-dev] Hard-coded root_as_url_component ?

I'm wondering (aloud, if you will) what kind of headaches it would cause 
folks if ViewVC 1.1 dropped the configurability of the root_as_url_component 
option and hard-coded it to always be on.  For those not familiar with this 
configuration option, it basically makes ViewVC generate URLs of the form 
".../ROOTNAME/path/in/root" instead of ".../path/in/root?root=ROOTNAME" 
(where root=ROOTNAME is only present for roots that aren't configured as the 
default_root).

I admit that all the pros of hardcoding this value are aimed at development 
and maintenance of ViewVC.  I mean, there are several benefits that users 
get from having root_as_url_component=1 (repository listing view, URLs that 
you can protect with Apache auth rules, cross-repository HTML intra-file 
linking, ...), but not everybody cares about those benefits.

There are two cons I can think of:

   1. It breaks compatibility with old URLs that don't carry the root=
      parameter.  If ViewVC get a URL like ".../some/path", it won't
      know if that represents /path in a root named "some" or /some/path
      in the default root.  The workaround is to install ViewVC 1.1 at
      a different location than previous versions, and use a stub CGI
      script at the old ViewVC location to redirect the user to the new
      ViewVC location (if the URL doesn't have the "root=ROOT" CGI param,
      then add it -- using the default_root -- and redirect to the new
      ViewVC location).  ViewVC 1.1 could even provide this script.

   2. Some folks might not want the (possibly-redundant) root name present
      in their URL.  Not sure if there's a workaround for this ... maybe
      some Apache RewriteRule magic?

Thoughts?  Opinions?

-- 
C. Michael Pilato <[email protected]>
CollabNet   <>   www.collab.net   <>   Distributed Development On Demand

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