SVN version tags and release info in changelogs

[Jannis Pohlmann]

Hey,

Am Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:56:44 -0700
schrieb "Brian J. Tarricone" <bjt23 at cornell.edu>:

> On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:18:37 +0200 Jannis Pohlmann wrote:
> 
> > Hey all,
> > 
> > we still haven't added the 'svn' version tag back to any of the Xfce
> > components after the alpha and we also haven't added some kind of
> > release hint like '=== 4.5.90 released ===' to the ChangeLogs. I
> > think this is bad. The release hints would make it so much easier
> > to locate when the last release was made and which changes have
> > been made since then. 
> 
> Agreed on the easy-to-find label in the changelog, but don't worry
> about the svn tag so much.  The svn tag should be re-added by the
> module maintainer the next time they change code in trunk.  If the
> code in trunk is identical to the tagged non-svn version, then it
> doesn't matter if trunk has the svn tag or not (actually, I'd say
> it's better that it doesn't, since a user who updates from trunk and
> installs will quickly know that they're just getting the same as the
> most recent release with no changes.)

I know my mail sounded a bit hysterical. It wasn't meant to sound that
way. I agree with you on the svn tag problem generally. However, we
already made a bunch of commits to modules without re-adding the svn
version tag. I suppose there won't be any 4.5.90 tagging any more so we
should re-add these tags on the next commits.

> > We'll have to update the NEWS files a number of times in the near
> > future, so please let's do this properly: Remove the svn tag
> > and add a '=== 4.5.x released ===' hint to the ChangeLog before
> > tagging/releasing and add the svn tag back afterwards.
> 

(snip) (But still: release hints next time please.)

> Oh,and on a side note, I recall Stephan being appalled at me for
> committing into a tag and trunk simultaneously to fix a problem
> instead of deleting and recreating the tag.  I've since seen the
> light, and agree with him -- if you need to retag, delete and
> recreate the tag, don't commit to the tag to bring it in line with
> trunk, because the tag commit will not actually end up being
> equivalent to the trunk commit, and both the changelog and svn log
> get a little weird.  It's easier to delete and recreate the tag
> anyway.

Agreed. But I think we should try to tag only once next time. Tagging
happened quite early this time, a bit too early if you ask me. To avoid
the need to re-tag some components it'd probably be a good idea to
prepare release notes and all that first, then go on to testing the
tarballsm, then add the tags and after that immediately (read: within
the next 12 hours) perform the release. Doing things carefully and
only doing them once would make me happy ;)

(As a side note: I don't intend to make this too much of a big deal.
Considering how often we re-tagged and re-created the tarballs the
release -- and basically everything that happened during the 12-24 hours
before -- went fairly smooth.)

  - Jannis