title: Should external dependencies be fixed, during development?
body: <p>My team and I are working on several projects that collectively depend on some common libraries. These common libraries are currently checked out together with the projects, using svn:externals.</p>
  
  <p>The question is, should the projects' trunks track the HEAD of each library, or be linked to specific revisions?</p>
  
  <p>The issue libraries are <em>very</em> actively developed by others in the company, and occasionally checkins are made that break the projects depending on a library. This shows up as a red blob on our CI, even if we haven't changed anything ourselves. Some people argue that, "that's why we have a CI server; so that we know when we're falling behind," where others argue, "we want to see how <em>all</em> the changes integrate, on the bleeding edge."</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone comment on the best practice? I have my opinion, which I will reserve for now.</p>