[development] CVS branch work best practices?

[AjK]

Bèr

my 2p worth

Here's how I work it. Using your "tree" as an example.

After I create the DRUPAL-5 branch I continue work in there and never touch
HEAD. In fact, I delete all files from my HEAD, see why in a moment.

Then, as I progress down D-5 branch I may tag DRUPAL-5--1-x for a bug fix
release or DRUPAL-5--2-x for a feature release. I don't bother porting these
to HEAD yet like you are doing.

My devel continues like that. Then, at some point, when I have my head
around chx's, webchick's and eaton's et al latest greatest patches I
consider, is it time to stop adding features to DRUPAL-5-x branch and switch
to "bug fix this branch only" ?

If yes, then I copy my latest greatest effort out DRUPAL-5 branch to HEAD.
DRUPAL-5 is now in bug fix only mode.

Now, in HEAD, I start porting to DRUPAL CORE HEAD. There's no point adding
features here as we are probably in code freeze anyway and we're all
upgrading like mad.

Then, DRUPAL-6 comes along. Branch my module, wipe HEAD (till next code
freeze) and continue devel down the DRUPAL-6 branch.

That's how I do it. HEAD itself isn't anything special imho. It's the HEAD
of your current active branch that's important.

</2p worth>

--Andy (AjK)

> I've recently started using the "new" CVS ways on Drupal.org but
> ran into some
> difficulties. I am not sure if I simply don't understand it, or
> if I expect
> too much from the 'tools'.
>
> Here is the case:
> Foo module has the following tree
> |
> |--- DRUPAL-4-7
> |--- DRUPAL-5
> |     |- tag DRUPAL-5--1-0
> |     | lots of hard work and patches applied
> |     |- tag DRUPAL-5--2-0
> |
> HEAD.
>
> What one would expect (or at least, what the CVS handbooks tell
> me to expect)
> is that HEAD is always the latest-greatest-thingy. So it should
> include all
> the cool stuff that was added during the 'lots of hard work and patches
> applied' phase.
> Yet with the curent practice it is not, or seems to me, not to
> be. In order to
> let it be that latest-greatest, I *seem to* have to apply all
> patches twice,
> at least, I could not find any way to make this easier then by
> copy-pasting
> files, changes and patches around. I seem to have to syncronise
> the changes
> made during 'lots of hard work' every single time. This is quite a lot of
> work. And I feel it as a waste of time when the 'tools' I use require me
> to 'waste' time that i could have spent on development.
>
> Is there some way, I missed, or misunderstood, or whatever, that
> allows this
> process to work without lots of extra work?
> Is it just me who wants HEAD to be he latest-greatest?
>
> Bèr
>
> NB: I asked the same question on Drupal's IRC channel, yet people
> tought I was
> whining, or complaining; I've tried to rephrase it in this mail,
> it is just a
> concern of me, and a question for others about how I (and others,
> facing the
> same issues) can drive up my productivity. It is by no means meant as
> critique on the new release system. It is simply a question for us all to
> improve the way we use our "tools" :)
> --
> Drupal, Ruby on Rails and Joomla! development: webschuur.com |
> Drupal hosting:
> www.sympal.nl
>