Hi,
Beeing very new to both jakarta and CVS, I'd like to have your advice on how
to manage releases, beta and CVS branches.
Let's take Cactus as an example. Here are some facts :
F1) When it was hosted on SourceForge, I used to release very often point
releases (0.6, then 0.7, then 0.8). It worked very well and users were
getting changes very often which was great.
F2) During the move to jakarta-commons, I chose to release a 1.0beta 1
version because I thought that I was going to forgot to replace some
copyrights, some package names, ... so I preferred to do a beta before a
final release. Also, the 1.0 release is supposed to be the first Cactus
"production" release. Before the 1.0, it was very easy to change interfaces,
... After the 1.0, it will need more thoughts before doing a big change and
it may even need a new major release for such changes (like a 2.0, ...).
F3) When more users participate and have CVS access, it is more difficult to
manage a project like in F1. I guess, we have to decide together what will
be in the next release and do a CVS branching to work on the next release.
Here are my questions :
Q1) Is it a habit in jakarta land to always do betas before a final release
? If so, is there a rule to the number of betas ? Or simply if no new bugs
are reported after XXX days (is there a value for XXX ?) then we do the
final release ?
Q2) How de we handle branches ? Do we keep the latest sources in the main
trunk and the release in a separate branch (like a CACTUS_10_BRANCH for the
Cactus 1.0 release) or is it the other way round (the main trunk is the
release and a branch is created for working on the next release, like a
CACTUS_11_BRANCH) ?
Q3) After a beta has been released, what can be added/modified in the source
code for that final release. Can we still make minor modifications, minor
additions to the code or should it absolutely be made on the next version
branch ? (I guess this is the "ideal" solution but may not always be
followed ...)
Q4) If a single change must be made on 2 branches, is there a good way to do
that instead of doing it manually twice ?
Thanks and sorry for these beginner questions ... :)
Vincent Massol.
