[Mageia-dev] packages branches and revision numbers when submiting packages with mgarepo

Sat Jan 29 02:43:16 CET 2011

On 29.01.2011 03:16, nicolas vigier wrote:
+> Hello,
+> 
+> In Mandriva using repsys it was possible to provide a svn revision number
+> when submitting a package. It is still possible to do it using mgarepo,
+> but with a separate repository for binary files, it is more difficult.
+> The current version of mgarepo tries to find the right revision to use
+> for the binrepo (revision from the same date as the revision on the
+> specs repository), but it is not always working as expected. I started
+> to add an option to be able to specify the binrepo revision to use when
+> submiting, but after thinking about it, it's probably not a good idea,
+> because it becomes too complicate.
+> 
+> With repsys it's also possible when submiting packages to give an URL
+> instead of a package name. This allows creating new branches for a
+> package. However we also have a problem with this with binrepo, as we
+> need to find the right path for the binary repository. We could add an
+> option to give the URL for the binaries, but I don't think it's a good
+> idea.
+> 
+> So I propose to do this instead :
+> 
+>  - We won't allow using revision numbers when submiting packages.
+>    Instead we always use the latest revision available on svn. I don't
+>    think submit with a revision number are used much (but maybe I'm wrong ?)
+>    and a branch copied from a revision can be used instead, to do the
+>    same. And not supporting revision numbers will make mgarepo code more
+>    simple.
+> 
+>  - We won't allow submit with a URL, but only with a package name (and
+>    the right URL will be generated by the script receiving the submit request
+>    on pkgsubmit). To allow using branches, instead we add a --branch option
+>    to provide the name of a branch. If no branch name is provided we use
+>    the package from this path :
+>      /packages/cauldron/[packagename]/current
+>    If a branch name is provided we use the package from this path :
+>      /packages/cauldron/[packagename]/branches/[branchname]
+>    And the same path in the binrepo. 
+>    Some commands can be added in mgarepo to create, remove, checkout branches.
+> 
+>    With this, the path for branches will be more clear, and the same for
+>    all packages (contrary to Mandriva where packages could have some branches
+>    in /packages/branches, or in /packages/updates, /packages/updates_release
+>    or /packages/cooker or anywhere on the repository).
+> 
+> 
+> Does anyone see any problem with this ? Or other ideas, or comments ?
+
+AFAICS the above branch scheme doesn't work well with changelog
+generation. As changelog is generated from [packagename]/releases, one
+of two things seems bound to happen:
+
+a) There is no [packagename]/releases under the branch, and the
+changelog gets messed up (all commits since initial package import in a
+single release entry), or
+
+b) One tries to keep [packagename]/releases to preserve sane changelog
+when branching, but this will fail as this SVN command is invalid, as
+one can't copy a directory into itself:
+svn cp /packages/cauldron/[packagename]
+/packages/cauldron/[packagename]/branches/[branchname]
+
+Or maybe I'm missing something?
+
+-- 
+Anssi Hannula
+