[Mageia-dev] packages branches and revision numbers when submiting packages with mgarepo

[nicolas vigier]

Hello,

In Mandriva using repsys it was possible to provide a svn revision number
when submitting a package. It is still possible to do it using mgarepo,
but with a separate repository for binary files, it is more difficult.
The current version of mgarepo tries to find the right revision to use
for the binrepo (revision from the same date as the revision on the
specs repository), but it is not always working as expected. I started
to add an option to be able to specify the binrepo revision to use when
submiting, but after thinking about it, it's probably not a good idea,
because it becomes too complicate.

With repsys it's also possible when submiting packages to give an URL
instead of a package name. This allows creating new branches for a
package. However we also have a problem with this with binrepo, as we
need to find the right path for the binary repository. We could add an
option to give the URL for the binaries, but I don't think it's a good
idea.

So I propose to do this instead :

 - We won't allow using revision numbers when submiting packages.
   Instead we always use the latest revision available on svn. I don't
   think submit with a revision number are used much (but maybe I'm wrong ?)
   and a branch copied from a revision can be used instead, to do the
   same. And not supporting revision numbers will make mgarepo code more
   simple.

 - We won't allow submit with a URL, but only with a package name (and
   the right URL will be generated by the script receiving the submit request
   on pkgsubmit). To allow using branches, instead we add a --branch option
   to provide the name of a branch. If no branch name is provided we use
   the package from this path :
     /packages/cauldron/[packagename]/current
   If a branch name is provided we use the package from this path :
     /packages/cauldron/[packagename]/branches/[branchname]
   And the same path in the binrepo. 
   Some commands can be added in mgarepo to create, remove, checkout branches.

   With this, the path for branches will be more clear, and the same for
   all packages (contrary to Mandriva where packages could have some branches
   in /packages/branches, or in /packages/updates, /packages/updates_release
   or /packages/cooker or anywhere on the repository).


Does anyone see any problem with this ? Or other ideas, or comments ?