I shamelessly added that my copy of our new documentation repo [1] and did a merge request :)
Otherwise this useful information will get lost in the mail archive... [1]: https://gitlab.com/FreeDOS/docs Bernd > The following is just a general reminder to everyone who may not be aware of > some information regarding OS Builds. > > At present, the RBE (Release Build Environment for FreeDOS) is what creates > OS Release media. There is a completely new version under development that > has been put on pause while I work on other more pressing matters (Like > FDRepo). > > The current “in use” version of the RBE is Edition 3. It is fully automated > and creates the various release files and reports. While not perfect, it has > reduced the process of creating everything required for a complete release to > simply running one build script, waiting a little while and finally uploading > its output. It is what makes monthly builds possible and consistent. > > I have the RBE use three different configurations Interim, Candidate and > Release. > > Interim - monthly test builds, labeled Tyymm. For example, next month the > Interim build will be for June of 2025 and called T2506. These are almost > always released on the 1st of the month. These builds also use a different > theme for the Primary FreeDOS Installer (FDI) which is used on CD and USB > install media. This theme is used to assist in calling attention to the fact > that a test version of the OS is being installed. > > Candidate - These builds are the final test builds prior to an OS release. > They are labeled with the upcoming OS release version plus an RCn. The RC is > short for Release Candidate and is followed by an incremental number for each > RC created. It uses the normal theme that will be used on the actual final > release of the new OS version. With few exceptions, these are basically > frozen from any but critical updates and are meant to verify all works as > intended for a new release. > > Release - when an RC is deemed satisfactory, the RC is removed from the > version identifier and it becomes the Final Release for the new OS version. > > When the RBE creates one of these three builds, part of the process involves > assembling all of the packages. For Edition 3 (the currently used RBE > version), it fetches the lists of what packages to include on the different > media from the FDI project. > > After those lists have been processed, it clones all of the relevant packages > from the FreeDOS archive on GitLab. When creating an Interim build, the RBE > will check if the project contains an “unstable” branch. If one exists, it > will use the files in that branch to generate a package for the build. If an > “unstable” branch does not exist, it will use the master branch. > > For a Candidate build, it will look for and prefer a candidate branch of the > various projects. For a Release build, it will only use files in the default > branch of the projects. Generally, the default branch is called the “master” > branch. > > Other types of builds are possible by assigning a different branch to prefer > in the configuration for the RBE. However, only the there mentioned are > currently in use to determine what branch is preferred for a build. > > Plans are for version 4 of the RBE to also support the ability to use tags > and build specific previous versions of the OS release media. Of course, this > will be limited to the tags in the various projects. In other words, (maybe) > 1.3, (definitely) 1.4 and later. > > Tags related to the versions of the OS release were added on mass to all of > the projects in the FreeDOS GitLab Archive using FreeDOS Version Control > System utility (aka FDVCS). > > FDVCS is a utility whose primary function is preserve file timestamps when > using a git repository. This utility also performs other tasks related to > working with Git. Such as simplifying the process of adding a specific Tag to > hundreds of projects on mass. > > Anyway, while the RBE is cloning all of the relevant branches for the build, > it will perform some validation and turn them into packages. > > While this does not even come close to scratching the surface of the actions > performed by the RBE during a build, it is a reasonable generalization of > what files are used for the different types of OS builds. > > :-) > > > > > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Freedos-devel mailing list >> Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-devel mailing list > Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
