win7 - ability to link folders?

[completerookie]

let me exlain. (hopefully in a way that people will understand)

I do lots of coding, some of the code is common,

example.
i have directories "A,B & C" and also "common"
what I'm looking for is a utility that allows the contents of "common" directory to show up normal files inside the other "A, B & C" directories. (I actually have lots of folders that need to share the code)

if I edit a file inside "common", then those changes automatically/instantly show up in "A,B & C", likewise, if I edit any of those shared files from within "A,B or C", the changes are actually written to the file that is held in the "common" directory. and once again reflected within the other linked directories.
regardless of where I edit the file, its always held in the single "common" folder and is not physically copied around other folders.

If anything interacts with the "shared folders", it just works and needs to ignore the fact that the actual file is in "common"

Does anyone know of a utility that this concept within Windows7.
I've searched in google, but the words I come up with always seem to be associated with networking or sharing/permissions - thats not what I'm interested in.

I guess it something like "drop box" but only for a single computer and the contents just get merged with the other folders.

anyone?

kev

[Jan]

A source control system would do this, I've used Tortoise svn in the past for this, that might be a bit of a sledge hammer approach though.

Regards,

[completerookie]

Thanks Jan.
I'd thought about version control, but I'm thinking more of "inheritance"
about 98% of the code is unique to each directory, and its only those odd files I need to carefully monitor, and as we all know, its only too easy to "forget" to copy the "common" code to all directories after making changes

at the moment, we resort to putting large comments in the header of the common files "****** don't forget to copy everywhere *****" but being nearly human, I sometimes forget to do even the simplest of tasks
kev

[Jan]

SVN will do the copying for you - there is some setup required to do this - using svn:externals. There are some details here :

http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/...mmon-externals.

Regards,

[malbro]

let me exlain. (hopefully in a way that people will understand)

I do lots of coding, some of the code is common,

example.
i have directories "A,B & C" and also "common"
what I'm looking for is a utility that allows the contents of "common" directory to show up normal files inside the other "A, B & C" directories. (I actually have lots of folders that need to share the code)

if I edit a file inside "common", then those changes automatically/instantly show up in "A,B & C", likewise, if I edit any of those shared files from within "A,B or C", the changes are actually written to the file that is held in the "common" directory. and once again reflected within the other linked directories.
regardless of where I edit the file, its always held in the single "common" folder and is not physically copied around other folders.

If anything interacts with the "shared folders", it just works and needs to ignore the fact that the actual file is in "common"

Does anyone know of a utility that this concept within Windows7.
I've searched in google, but the words I come up with always seem to be associated with networking or sharing/permissions - thats not what I'm interested in.

I guess it something like "drop box" but only for a single computer and the contents just get merged with the other folders.

anyone?

kev

Well you could use shortcuts

[completerookie]

we tried that, but when the compiler kicks in, it can't seem to understand shortcuts

[leehack]

Dropbox will do this, you have the master folder on your machine where you do the changes and as you do each change it gets auto updated to everyone else that also shares that folder. You're maintaining one single file across multiple locations then.

[completerookie]

Thanks Lee. we tried dropbox, and I use that already to move files between physical sites - works like a dream doing that

it may seem that I am coming across as an old awkward b***er, I'm trying not to be that awkward.

we already share the parent folder in traditional networks and then everyone simply dips in and out of the sub folders (hence "A,B & C" and "common" folders)

so in our instance, the "common" files need to appear as though they are simply part of the "A,B & C" folders.

I think the best word to sum up what I'm trying to get is "inheritance"

thanks for the ideas so far though.

kev

[Duncan Rounding]

Try looking for dynamic file replication software - there's a lot around some synch instantly on change.

[malbro]

we already share the parent folder in traditional networks and then everyone simply dips in and out of the sub folders (hence "A,B & C" and "common" folders)

so in our instance, the "common" files need to appear as though they are simply part of the "A,B & C" folders.

I think the best word to sum up what I'm trying to get is "inheritance"

thanks for the ideas so far though.

kev

Why do you not just include the common files into your source code, we have a lot of common code that resides in a single folder, if I want to use code from those files I include the file into the source code I am working on. You haven't mentioned which language you are using but C / C++/ PHP etc all have the include directive and allow multiple folders to hold include files.