Re: Labels

James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> On 29/03/06, Lakshman Srilakshmanan
> <lakshman.srilakshmanan@tradingpost.com.au> wrote:
>> Hi James,
>>
>> Using a version control system to determine/manage what should be
>> released to a customer (release control) may not necessarily be the
>> right way of doing it.
>>
>> I use a release script (ie ant) to create a release directory and
>> prepare it for release to
>> the customer. This script is modified for every release and versioned
>> controlled.
>>
>> This ensures that there is little room for error. Every time you
>> checkout a "Release Tag", you are able to reproduce the release package
>> as it appeared in the original release.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Lakshman
>>
>
> To put this in context, the feature I describe is in a package called
> ClearCase. http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/clearcase/
> I am trying to get svn to mirror some of the features of ClearCase,
> and this "views" feature is a way to have a view of a potential
> release as it is nearing release, but still changing.
>
> I could add this feature to svn, but I don't really want to try unless
> svn developers think it is a good idea.
>
> As for release control, release control is just a "process", with
> things like svn just being tools in that process. If a tweek to svn
> could make the process more efficient, then I think it would be worth
> doing. I believe that my suggestion of labels and views would result
> in you not needed any "release scripts", so surely that would make
> things more efficient for you also.
>
> James

ClearCase views are a very different beast to tags. I guess what you do
is you label a set of files and then use a CC view (probably a dynamic
one, which in itself is a very confusing and ineffectove thing) to
always have a copy of the label. A CC view is a subversion working copy.

Clearcase is overly complex in this regard and mixes a lot of
conventions and paradigms. My experience with it is that it only
confuses your developers, your release manager and almost everyone
involved (and I used and ended up administering a large CC installation
for more than 4 years - I would have substituted the whole beast for a
single subversion server if they had let me).

What you want is a working copy of a branch, where you merge the
per-customer changes.
It does the same thing with the label/view paradigm of Clearcase and it
can't be abused as much (I don't know about you, but I have had lots of
overtime fixing things because some idiot thought it good to move a label).

I would advise you to stop trying to mimic CC's behaviour and adapt to
Subversion's paradigms. They're cleaner, simpler and in the end a lot
more effective.
Cheers,
V.-

-- 
http://www.braveworld.net/riva
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