"Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com> writes:
> In the NetBSD project, we have set up an automated build system for
> binaries, so when we do a branch or tag, or even just day to day,
> people can always get fresh binaries. I'd happily help with such a
> thing for Subversion.
That's a very welcome offer! Could you help organizationally as well
as technically?
It'd be *great* to have binary builds be an automatic part of the
release process, but just haven't had time to work much on it. If
there were some arrangement whereby we could just hand The System a
source tarball and get the appropriate set of binaries out, that would
be a huge win. "The System" would be some combination of human and
automated processes -- of course I'm not expecting a total lack of
human involvement, but the more automated, the better.
Organizationally, what's needed is someone to come up with a list of
the platforms we do binaries for, then match those with volunteers
equipped to produce the binaries. During a release, this person would
keep track that the binaries actually get produced within a set amount
of time (send out reminders when necessary, organize backup
volunteers, etc). They'd have Download Manager role at tigris.org, in
order to put direct, local links to the binaries from
http://subversion.tigris.org/project_packages.html.
(IMHO, it'd be good for this to be completely separate from the
Release Management process. RM is just about getting the vetted
source tarball out the door. Binaries are about turning that source
into executables. Best to distribute the load and not burden the RM
with additional responsibilities, when a clean separation is
possible.)
> I think it is very important to the success of an open source project
> that people know they can depend on the software, and knowing you can
> always get your hands on binaries with bug fixes in them is part of
> that.
Agreed.
Considering the laissez faire approach we've had up till now, our
binaries have come out surprisingly regularly. But the system's
always been fragile & unpredictable in scheduling, and our coverage
hasn't been great.
I wasn't sure if you meant you could volunteer to produce binaries for
some platforms, or to help organize a general binary producing effort,
or both. If you don't have time for the larger task, that's totally
understandable. But I do think we'll need someone to take ownership,
if we want the situation to improve.
-Karl
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@subversion.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@subversion.tigris.org
Received on Thu Mar 25 15:27:51 2004