| 1 | cnh | 1.1 | GCMPACK CVS policies | 
| 2 |  |  | ==================== | 
| 3 |  |  |  | 
| 4 |  |  | o Introduction | 
| 5 |  |  |  | 
| 6 |  |  | This note describes policies that apply to the GCMPACK CVS repository | 
| 7 |  |  |  | 
| 8 |  |  | o Why have a policy? | 
| 9 |  |  |  | 
| 10 |  |  | CVS itself is a liberal free-for-all product that can be used in a variety | 
| 11 |  |  | of ways. It is designed to provide a system for storing arbitrary files | 
| 12 |  |  | in a way that allows the change history of the individual files to be | 
| 13 |  |  | tracked. If CVS is used without any other policy the result can be a | 
| 14 |  |  | collection of files each of which has complex, multiply branched set of | 
| 15 |  |  | interelated versions. This sort of CVS repository can be come like a | 
| 16 |  |  | library where books are simply stored in a huge heap. Although nothing is   actually lost, the task of finding a coherent collection of material soon | 
| 17 |  |  | becomes impossible. | 
| 18 |  |  |  | 
| 19 |  |  | The policies we employ address two areas | 
| 20 |  |  | 1. Maintaining an orderly and easily identifiable, coherent set of | 
| 21 |  |  | evolving "products". | 
| 22 |  |  | 2. Allowing concurrent, on-going development of products. | 
| 23 |  |  |  | 
| 24 |  |  | o Development trees and checkpoint trees | 
| 25 |  |  |  | 
| 26 |  |  | A directory within the GCMPACK repository resides under either the | 
| 27 |  |  | development branch or the checkpoint branch. Files within each branch | 
| 28 |  |  | follow different policies. | 
| 29 |  |  |  | 
| 30 |  |  | o Development tree policies | 
| 31 |  |  |  | 
| 32 |  |  | Development trees are intended to be flexible areas where arbitrary files | 
| 33 |  |  | can be stored with multiple versions, many branches supporting multiple | 
| 34 |  |  | ongoing streams of development. Development trees have no policies in | 
| 35 |  |  | place to control complexity. Development trees might be associated with | 
| 36 |  |  | a particular person, a certain project or a particular special piece of | 
| 37 |  |  | work. These trees are intended to be useful areas for storing current | 
| 38 |  |  | work and for archiving partially finished work so that it doesn't get | 
| 39 |  |  | mislaid and s that some record of the development history can be easily | 
| 40 |  |  | maintained. The only policy that applies to development trees is that | 
| 41 |  |  | this style of tree is not intended to be used for providing a | 
| 42 |  |  | "checkpoint" distribution. Tagged configurations of tools built from this | 
| 43 |  |  | style of tree can be distributed, but because these trees do not have any | 
| 44 |  |  | polcies regarding testing of functionality, platform coverage or | 
| 45 |  |  | documentation these trees are not allowed to form the basis of | 
| 46 |  |  | "checkpoint" distrbutions or formal model releases. Other policies can | 
| 47 |  |  | be defined by individuals users of these trees but there are no further | 
| 48 |  |  | global policies. The GCMPACK repository development/ subdirectory is | 
| 49 |  |  | reserved for holding development trees. Development trees also serve as | 
| 50 |  |  | experimental areas for exploring new code management policies. | 
| 51 |  |  |  | 
| 52 |  |  | o Checkpoint tree policies | 
| 53 |  |  |  | 
| 54 |  |  | Checkpoint trees are intended to provide structured storage areas for | 
| 55 |  |  | holding code that is intended for open distribution and is to be readily | 
| 56 |  |  | downloaded. There are policies governing the operation of these trees | 
| 57 |  |  | which are designed to ensure that distributed codes are clearly | 
| 58 |  |  | identified and meet certain levels of quality. | 
| 59 |  |  |  | 
| 60 |  |  | 1. Check-out | 
| 61 |  |  |  | 
| 62 |  |  | Just do it! Two mechanisms are available. cvsanon for read only access | 
| 63 |  |  | and regular cvs co .... for read/write access. | 
| 64 |  |  |  | 
| 65 |  |  | 2. Check-in. | 
| 66 |  |  |  | 
| 67 |  |  | The code check in procedure for a "checkpoint" tree is as follows | 
| 68 |  |  | 2.1  Check out the latest main branch revision. | 
| 69 |  |  | 2.2  Merge your changes into that revision. | 
| 70 |  |  | 2.3  Build and validate new code. | 
| 71 |  |  | 2.4  Check that there have been no further changes to the | 
| 72 |  |  | repository. Repeat from 2.1 if repository has changed. | 
| 73 |  |  | 2.5  Get clearance from other developers to check in your changes. | 
| 74 |  |  | 2.6  Check in your changed main branch. | 
| 75 |  |  | 2.8  Build and validate the new changes. | 
| 76 |  |  | 2.9  Tag code as "checkpointNN". Add records to docs/tag-index. | 
| 77 |  |  | 2.10 Build and validate test cases (see testing). | 
| 78 |  |  | 2.11 Create and install checkpointNN.tar.gz | 
| 79 |  |  |  | 
| 80 |  |  | 3. Testing | 
| 81 |  |  |  | 
| 82 |  |  | 4. Checkpoint tagging | 
| 83 |  |  |  | 
| 84 |  |  | 5. Release tagging | 
| 85 |  |  |  | 
| 86 |  |  | 6. Branches | 
| 87 |  |  |  | 
| 88 |  |  | Branches are to be used for bug-fixes and code patches to releases | 
| 89 |  |  | only. All other changes e.g. totally new features, bug-fixes to | 
| 90 |  |  | checkpoints are introduced by moving checkpoint levels forward. The | 
| 91 |  |  | only historical code maintenance that is employed is for fixes and | 
| 92 |  |  | patches to formal releases - not checkpoints. | 
| 93 |  |  |  | 
| 94 |  |  | o These policies are causing me a big problem, what can I do? | 
| 95 |  |  |  | 
| 96 |  |  | The policies are not enforced by any mechanism other than mutual | 
| 97 |  |  | agreement! If you think the policies are not appropriate then let us know | 
| 98 |  |  | and we can discuss changing them. However, if you simply ignore the | 
| 99 |  |  | policies regarding the checkpoint_release trees then your code may be | 
| 100 |  |  | removed and/or your access revoked. | 
| 101 |  |  |  | 
| 102 |  |  | o What about bitkeeper | 
| 103 |  |  |  | 
| 104 |  |  | We are looking at bitkeeper (www.bitkeeper.com). It looks cool, but | 
| 105 |  |  | policies are still important. Any experience, suggestions let us know. | 
| 106 |  |  | Watch this space! | 
| 107 |  |  |  | 
| 108 |  |  | Questions, comments e-mail: gcmpack.code.czars@mitgcm.org | 
| 109 |  |  |  |