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

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Reinier Post wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 20, 1999 at 02:54:48PM +1000, David Pfitzner wrote:
>  
> > 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.)
> 
> Good point.  Are they identical to the cvs checkouts of the same day?

Currently the snapshots are just the "current" version at the
date a script is run, typically at about the same time each
day via cron.  But it might be better to make it the state at 
a precise time earlier that day, such that one can repeatably 
recover each snapshot via cvs.

> That would solve the problem.  As a matter of fact, for dates in the
> past, snapshots can be created on the fly.  (Trigger the 'snapshooter'
> from a CGI script.)

Thats a neat idea, for benefit of the cvs-challenged :-)

> > 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 ;-)
> 
> But it involves some coordinated playtesting, doesn't it?

Not necessarily.  I think the "current cvs" version is quite 
playable most of the time, and marking relatively arbitrary 
points of that as "unstable releases" is no problem.  Of course 
if such a release has a fatal problem, just fix it and release 
again :-)  (Or warn people to go back to previous releases in 
meantime, till a fix.)

-- David