Is it time to create a node-kind enumeration type that includes 'symlink' and use it widely, making symlinks a top-level node kind, at least on the client side? We have already done this in the WC with svn_wc__db_kind_t. It seems like we're moving in that direction.
Greg prompted me half way down this email: <http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2011-10/0084.shtml>, so I knocked up an initial implementation in the 'tree-read-api' branch: <http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?revision=1180839&view=revision>, <http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?revision=1180932&view=revision>. This introduces 'svn_kind_t' which is like 'svn_node_kind_t' but also has a 'symlink' kind. I haven't thought through how this would affect the future of the 'svn:special' property. Were there any plans to make 'svn:special' describe special files other than symlinks (devices, pipes, etc.)? Thoughts? My current attempt at an implementation for svn_ra_check_path2() <http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?revision=1181040&view=revision> is ugly, as Bert pointed out in <http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2011-10/0105.shtml>: it reads the kind through the RA session, then it reads the properties as a second operation, and looks for a svn:special property. We'll want a better solution there and I'm not sure what that would look like. - Julian
