[Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] RE: Re: svn vs. cvs (some documentation)

[Tres Seaver]

Jim Fulton wrote:

>> 3.  Up to this point, we haven't had to be careful about managing
>>     bugfixes across multiple releases.
> 
> Sure we have.  We've had a release branch for
> some time.  Perhaps I should add:

The complaint you made earlier today (about bugs fixed on the head, but 
not on the release branch) is a symptom of this issue.  FWIW, it is 
standard doctrine that bugs should be fixed *first* on the release 
branch, and then forward-ported to the trunk, rather than vice versa.

That SVN makes some kinds of changes easier to propagate (because they 
are captured as a single atomic revision) does mitigate the need for 
most "bugfix" branches (new tests. changed code, and the changelog entry 
can be checked in together).

Note that our current policy on the changelog fights against this 
somewhat (http://dev.zope.org/CVS/CommitterGuidelines):

    If you're fixing a bug, you only need to add to CHANGES.txt in the
    [release] branch.  If you're adding a feature, you only need to add
    to CHANGES.txt in the trunk. [The release manager] later stitches
    them together.

> 4. Subversion makes it much easier to manage and
>    merge changes, since repository-wide revision numbers
>    provide the same capabilities as tags and, thus, make
>    tagging mostly unnecessary.
> 
>  >  We also haven't had lots
> 
>>     of "independent" feature work going on in the core.
> 
> Not sure what you mean by this.

When collaborating on a feature which touches many files, it is often 
desirable to check in intermediate versions;  activity branches make 
this possible, without risking the stability of the trunk.  The CVS 
document (http://dev.zope.org/CVS/ZopeCVSFAQ) says:

    It is very important that the trunk remain stable so that releases
    can be made on short notice. To keep the trunk from becoming
    unstable, all work is done on branches in CVS and when the work has
    stabilized it can be merged into the trunk.

Tres.
-- 
===============================================================
Tres Seaver                                tseaver at zope.com
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