[cvsnt] Modules and Shared Libraries - tagging strategy?

[Warren, Erik]

Tim,

I use a very similar strategy with my FORTRAN code.  We keep project
specific files in a module bearing that project name (e.g. module b32awt
contains files b32awt.for, b32cfg.for, b32n05.for, etc) but there are
many files which are used in all our programs and they reside in the
Util module.  Nearly every project we have uses several items from the
util module but no project includes all the files in the util module.
We therefore create an alias module for each project which includes the
specific files within the Util module which are used for that project.

So for the b32awt project we have the following entries in our modules
file:
b32awt b32awt
b32awtu -a util/awout.for util/clout.for util/pageno.for
Proj_b32awt &b32awt &b32awtu

This way when you checkout Proj_b32awt you get the util module with only
those files used in the b32awt project.  We tag our code at each release
with Rel_<project name>_<major>_<minor> e.g. files used to build
b32awt.exe v2.3 would get tag Rel_b32awt_2_3
This tag can be done 2 ways.
First, you can checkout your project using the ampersand module
Proj_b32awt and apply your tag to that module in your sandbox.

Second, you can use rtag to tag the ampersand module on the server.
This method does require care because you might build a file using an
out of date file in your sandbox but the up to date version on the
server gets the tag.  Also, the rtag command breaks when using ampersand
modules if you use some more recent cvsnt executables.

I use the second method and my server and clients are all cvsnt 2.0.34
I have not tested this with all subsequent versions but I do know that
2.0.51 and subsequent all have the rtag problem.

I may go to the first method if the rtag issue is not resolved so that I
can continue to take advantage of the improvements that continue to go
into CVSNT.

Regards,
Erik Warren


-----Original Message-----
From: cvsnt-bounces at cvsnt.org [mailto:cvsnt-bounces at cvsnt.org] On Behalf
Of Williams, Tim
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 11:12 AM
To: cvsnt at cvsnt.org
Cc: Williams, Tim
Subject: [cvsnt] Modules and Shared Libraries - tagging strategy?


Hi folks,

I have a question about how best to use and manage a code library that
is used in multiple projects.
 
Take for example two projects that share a code library. The projects
are PROJ1 and PROJ2, both in the same repository. They share a common
library I'll call PROJ-SHARED that I check out with each project using
ampersand module specification. My modules file would look like:

PROJ-SHARED -d PROJ-SHARED PROJ/PROJ-SHARED/SAS
PROJ1-MAIN -d SAS PROJ/PROJ1/SAS
PROJ2-MAIN -d SAS PROJ/PROJ2/SAS
PROJ1 &PROJ1-MAIN &PROJ-SHARED
PROJ2 &PROJ2-MAIN &PROJ-SHARED

So if I checkout PROJ1 in my sandbox I get:

....\williamstim\PROJ1\SAS\... ....\williamstim\PROJ1\PROJ-SHARED\...

Now let's say I am ready to tag PROJ1 for a Release.  We use a tagging
convention: Release1, Release2, Release3.... for all of our projects.  I
want to tag PROJ1 with the tag "Release1" and I do this by applying the
tag to the \SAS folder my sandbox (*not* to the \PROJ1 folder, because
the files in PROJ-SHARED are used in other projects that may not be
ready for release, or have already gone past Release1.  

If I checkout PROJ1 to a production area using the tag "Release1" I get
all my PROJ1 files, but not any files in the shared library, since I did
not tag it "Release1".  

The only solutions I see at the moment are:
	1.	Change the tagging convention so I tag at the PROJ1
level and tag both the \SAS and \PROJ-SHARED folder in the sandbox,
using a tag that includes the project identifier. For example, Release1
becomes PROJ1_Release1 or similar naming convention. In this way, the
shared library gets tagged appropriately for each project that uses the
shared library.  
This would break naming conventions we already have in place, so I am
hoping for another solution.  Some of our project identifiers and tags
are already long strings, so the resulting tag names become longer and
more prone to user entry error. (E.g :  FOO100XX-FOO01_InterimRelease1
instead of simply: "InterimRelease1")
	2.	Maintain the shared code library as a completely
separate module.  
	This would not allow a strong link to the project moved into
production, since the library may not be tagged with the same tag as the
project (PROJ1). In fact, if we do not change our naming convention, it
would not be tagged at all!? (bad!)

	I would enjoy hearing from anyone who uses shared code libraries
between multiple projects and how they manage them using CVS.

	Thanks in advance,

	Tim  



SAS Systems Administrator
PRA International
Charlottesville VA, USA