Re: how to make a hypermail tar.gz-package

From: Kent Landfield <kent_at_hypermail-project.org>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 12:18:20 -0600 (CST)
Message-Id: <199911161818.MAA01130_at_rkive.landfield.com>

# I just noticed that the 2b26 package doesn't conform to the previously
# released beta-package's style.
#
# I did make an effort to make it easy to generate tarballs. This is how it
# should be done, my way:
#
# 1. Edit the FILES to contain all files that are part of the distribution. If
# nothing is changed, leave it as it is.
#
# 2. Run the 'maketgz' script in the root directory. It ask for the version
# number of the package. Enter '2b2000' or whatever is the correct version.
#
# The script will then perform. It will make sure the version string just
# entered is set in the patchlevel.h header file, it will create a
# subdirectory and copy all relevant files into that. Then it will tar that
# directory and finally gzip it and remove the subdirectory again.
#
# Left in the root directory is then a file named
# 'hypermail-<version>.tar.gz'.
#
# If this script is used, all tarballs are gonna look the same and the amount
# of human mistakes can be decreased. If the script doesn't do right, it is
# better to correct the script than to keep doing manual changes when building
# release archives.

I'm glad you brought this up. There are a couple things here we should discuss.

First is, the maketgz and FILES file are there for the administative purposes of just a couple people. They are of no use to the average hypermail user. Shouldn't tools like this, that are only used for building official distributions of hypermail, be in a separate CVS baseline such as one named "hypertools" ? Then we would have a place to put things that are not part of the hypermail package but are there for the benefit of those few that build distributions. I also have other things that fit into that category.

A problem with the script at present is that it does not allow to directly use what's in the CVS baseline. It also does not support tagging the CVS files that make up the distribution. If we are building distributions then we should be tagging the baseline files with the appropriate version information. Also the script modifies patchlevel.h that is created as part of the distribution. That new patchlevel.h is then not consistent with what is in the CVS tree.

I will clean it up so it will allow you to build directly from the CVS baseline and tag the files that make up that distribution. That way there is no chance of errors by forgetting to update the FILES file to add or remove a file. It will also make it easier for people to pull out a specific version of according to a baseline tag.

I'm sorry that it did not match. Hopefully these changes will make it easier to do everything needed in the script and provide better CVS baseline management as well.

-- 
Kent Landfield                        Phone: 1-817-545-2502             
Email: kent_at_landfield.com             http://www.landfield.com/
Email: kent_at_nfr.net                   http://www.nfr.net/
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Received on Tue 16 Nov 1999 08:21:37 PM GMT