[development] new CVS branch/tag conventions (was Re: tagadelic 'backport' for 4.7)

[Derek Wright]

On Oct 4, 2006, at 1:32 PM, Gary Feldman wrote:

> Why is there an x in the filename and not the release tag?  Since  
> there should always be a 1-1 mapping between a given (official) tar  
> ball and a given tag, there shouldn't be any difference in the way  
> the version numbers appear (modulo case, and in other situations,  
> some special character mappings).

1) because everyone (myself included) thinks the '.x' part is helpful  
for end users to understand the compatibility: it helps drive home  
the point it works with any version of drupal core that matches the  
"4.7" part, not a specific 4.7.N release.  so, that's what they'll  
see in the version box in the issue queue, what they (already) see in  
the taxonomy terms on drupal.org, in documentation, etc.  since the  
end users have to see and deal with these files, the '.x' part in the  
filename should match everything else that's targeted for end users.

2) because we've never used a "-X" in the branch/tag names until  
now.  by that standard, the "DRUPAL-4-7" branch should have been  
called "DRUPAL-4-7-X", but we've never done it that way, and i don't  
plan on changing that now.

3) because the tag already doesn't match the tarball's name (e.g. the  
tag says "DRUPAL-...", but the tarball is called "signup-...").

4) because i assume (probably wrongly) that contrib maintainers have  
enough of a clue to be able to understand this stuff. ;)  yes, we'll  
be working on making it more developer-friendly in the near future  
(e.g. you could go to some form wizard thingy on your project page  
and say "i want to make a new release, help me with the cvs crap",  
and it walks you through a few questions, figures out what version  
you plan to release, and dumps you out the cvs command-line you need  
to add the right tag, etc, etc).  but, in the first instance, i don't  
think it's too much to ask to understand the basics of this system.   
furthermore, contrib maintainers that can't be bothered will just  
create a DRUPAL-4-7 or DRUPAL-5 branch, like they always have, and  
leave it at that.  they'll get nightly snapshots from that branch.   
so, if they can't figure it out or don't care, they never tag any  
official releases and are stuck with the "4.7.x-0.0-dev" version of  
their module forever (which is equivalent to what they get now).

-derek