SVN version tags and release info in changelogs

[Brian J. Tarricone]

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:52:55 +0200 Jannis Pohlmann wrote:

> 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.

Well, I re-added the tag in xfdesktop... but I forgot for xfconf.  So I
guess relying on module maintainers to do it isn't the best thing.
Maybe re-adding the svn tag should be a post-release task for the
release manager, then?

> > > 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.)

Yeah, let's definitely do this.  I know we have done it for some
modules and not others, and on some releases and not others, but we
should do it for all.

> > 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 ;)

Well, a big part of the problem is that we were pushing out a release
that just wasn't ready, so we had a lot of "oh shit I found a
showstopper bug in package X, fixed, needs a retag and rebuild."  I'm
glad we did it, because it (at least for me) was great motivation to get
things working to my satisfaction in a really short amount of time.

In a better organised release, we aren't working right up until (and
past) the last minute to get the code into a state we're happy with.  I
think beta1 will be much easier in this regard, since, honestly, I'm
pretty reasonably happy with the state of things right now.  From here
on in, it'll just be bugfixes and minor optional feature additions
(until freeze).

> (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.)

Haha -- smoothly... I think only Stephan is qualified to make that
statement, if he so agrees ^_~.

	-brian