From: Kent Landfield (kent@hypermail.org)
Date: Tue Nov 16 1999 - 12:18:20 CST
# 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@landfield.com http://www.landfield.com/ Email: kent@nfr.net http://www.nfr.net/ Search the Usenet FAQ Archive at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ Search the RFC/FYI/STD/BCP Archive at http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/