[cvsnt] Re: Again: Forcing revision numbers

[Werner Weiling]

Tony,

>> foo.c (Revision 10.1)
>> bar.c (Revision 10.1)
> That is *not* a valid argument for not using tags.
We are using tags! These are specific to the product version and we use it as 
it is intended :-).

>> A developer can recognize very easily that the file 'foo.c' is 
>> compatible with  Product Version 1+2+3 and he can apply a bug fix for 
>> all product versions.
> Source files interact.  It's just not that simple.
Yep, we know. We're maintaining more than 3 Mio. LOC for 4 different major 
product versions on more than 16 operating systems.

Again: We're using it for validation of the release build and it is not an 
issue of the bug fixing phase.

>> - Compatibility to UNIX CVS
> It is compatible.  Compatibile does not mean identical.
I disagree: Compatible means that the interface is the same (including the 
command line parameters).
You should assume that we have a rather complex build environment with 
scripting enabled.

> The actual meaning of the numbers themselves is *internal*.  Originally 
> RCS generated them.  cvsnt is slowly moving to a database where they'll 
> be generated by that - the format of the numbers won't change so clients 
That's fine. There is probably an implementation difference on the CVS server 
how this number is maintained. But it would be nice if you don't prevent a 
Windows user using a feature on a CVS UNIX server which he thinks he requires.

IMHO the CVS server should reject setting the revision number and not the CVS 
client. Then you have a better interoperability with other UNIX CVS versions.

> TBH I'd rather the revision numbers weren't visible to clients at all - 
> there were plans to do that but I didn't have time to do it properly.
Well, IMHO this is a bad idea because using the "$ID:$" feature allows us to 
verify very easily on customer site the installed package (yes, you can do it 
also with build numbers/tags storing the various configurations).

Bo: Yes, it is open source and of course we will adapt it to our needs if 
everything else fails. But others also asked to include again this feature.

Thanks,
Werner