[Freeciv-Dev] Re: cvs-tags and snapshots

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Markus Linnala wrote:

> I find term 'latest cvs' ambiguous. We lack way to track
> developement.
> 
> My idea is to make every now and then cvs-snapshot release. Tag
> should be something like SS_YEAR_MONT_DAY_COUNTER,
> (SS_1999_09_17_001). No need to make any provisions.

CVS does already allow one to check-out the sources from
a specific date/time, so you can effectively do this already.
(There are also nightly snapshots as Reinier mentioned, but
they are not so useful simply because they don't stay around 
for long.)

But I agree that for some purposes it would be more useful
if we deliberately tag more often than major releases, probably
increasing the PATCH_VERSION more freely, as Nicolas suggested. 
(Increasing the version number often would allow increased 
profile on eg freshmeat, too ;-)

> If you provede patch now, it is agains latest cvs, but who knows
> what is latest? With reasonably frequent snapshots, you could
> always say yes this is agains the snapshot.

Personally this wouldn't help me much (as maintainer), as I'm 
interested in applying patches to the very latest version,
in order to check patches in to CVS, so I have to fix any 
breakage by hand anyway.  But again it could help some purposes.

(Although, if people get into the habit of creating patches
vs a recent tag, rather than vs "current", that could make
it _harder_ for the maintainer(s) to merge patches into "current",
simply because the patches will be typically created slightly
"older".)

-- David