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<title>MITgcm CVS policy</title> |
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<h1> |
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MITgcm CVS policy</h1></center> |
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<h2> |
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Introduction</h2> |
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This note describes policies that apply to the MITGCM CVS repository. |
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<h2> |
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Why have a policy?</h2> |
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CVS itself is a liberal free-for-all product that can be used in a variety |
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of ways. It is designed to provide a system for storing arbitrary files |
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in a way that allows the change history of the individual files to be tracked. |
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If CVS is used without any other policy the result can be a collection |
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of files each of which has complex, multiply branched set of interelated |
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versions. This sort of CVS repository can be come like a library where |
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books are simply stored in a huge heap. Although nothing is actually lost, |
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the task of finding a coherent collection of material soon becomes impossible. |
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<p>The policies we employ address two areas |
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<ol> |
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<li> |
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Maintaining an orderly and easily identifiable, coherent set of evolving |
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"products".</li> |
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<li> |
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Allowing concurrent, on-going development of product components.</li> |
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</ol> |
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<h2> |
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Development trees and checkpoint trees</h2> |
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A directory within the MITGCM repository resides under either the development |
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branch or the checkpoint branch. Files within each branch follow different |
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policies. |
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<h2> |
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Development tree policies</h2> |
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Development trees are intended to be flexible areas where arbitrary files |
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can be stored with multiple versions, many branches supporting multiple |
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ongoing streams of development. Development trees have no policies in place |
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to control complexity. Development trees might be associated with a particular |
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person, a certain project or a particular special piece of work. These |
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trees are intended to be useful areas for storing current work and for |
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archiving partially finished work so that it doesn't get mislaid and so |
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that some record of the development history can be easily maintained. The |
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only policy that applies to development trees is that this style of tree |
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is not intended to be used for providing a "checkpoint" distribution. Tagged |
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configurations of tools built from this style of tree can be distributed, |
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but because these trees do not have any polcies regarding testing of functionality, |
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platform coverage or documentation these trees are not allowed to form |
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the basis of "checkpoint" distrbutions or formal "releases". Other policies |
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can be defined by individuals users of these trees but there are no further |
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global policies. The MITGCM repository development_tree/ subdirectory is |
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reserved for holding development trees. Development trees also serve as |
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experimental areas for exploring new code management policies. |
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<h2> |
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Checkpoint tree policies</h2> |
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Checkpoint trees are intended to provide structured storage areas for holding |
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code that is intended for open distribution and is to be readily downloaded. |
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There are policies governing the operation of these trees which are designed |
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to ensure that distributed codes are early identified and meet certain |
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levels of quality. |
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<ol> |
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<li> |
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Check-out</li> |
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|
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<br>Just do it! Two mechanisms are available. cvsanon for read only access |
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and regular cvs co .... for read/write access. |
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<li> |
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Check-in</li> |
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<br>The code check in procedure for a "checkpoint" tree is as follows |
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<ol> |
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<li> |
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Check out the latest main branch revision.</li> |
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<li> |
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Merge your changes into that revision.</li> |
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<li> |
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Build and validate new code.</li> |
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<li> |
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Check that there have been no further changes to the repository. Repeat |
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from 2.1 if repository has changed.</li> |
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<li> |
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Get clearance from other developers to check in your changes.</li> |
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<li> |
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Check in your changed main branch.</li> |
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<li> |
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Build and validate the new changes.</li> |
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<li> |
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Tag code as "checkpointNN". Add records to docs/tag-index.</li> |
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<li> |
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Build and validate test cases (see testing).</li> |
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<li> |
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Create and install checkpointNN.tar.gz</li> |
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</ol> |
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<li> |
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Testing</li> |
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<br>Things in a checkpoint tree require a test case that can be used to |
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validate the component. |
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<li> |
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Checkpoint tagging</li> |
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<br>No code should be left in limbo. Checking in code and then leaving |
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it in the repository untagged is bad. When you check in code you are creating |
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a new checkpoint. That means you don't check in some code which you "know" |
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works 100% and then go away for two weeks. When you start checking in code |
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you make sure you have time to do the process end-to-end as described in |
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section 2. |
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<li> |
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Release tagging</li> |
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<br>Releases are only based on checkpoint tree code. Maintenance fixes |
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to releases are also maintained within the checkpoint tree. Files within |
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a release must have accompanying documentation. The form of this documentation |
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depends on the file type. |
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<li> |
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Branches</li> |
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<br>Branches are to be used for bug-fixes and code patches to releases |
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only. All other changes e.g. totally new features, bug-fixes to checkpoints |
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are introduced by moving checkpoint levels forward. The only historical |
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code maintenance that is employed is for fixes and patches to formal releases |
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- not checkpoints.</ol> |
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<h2> |
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These policies are causing me a big problem, what can I do?</h2> |
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The policies are not enforced by any mechanism other than mutual agreement! |
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If you think the policies are not appropriate then let us know and we can |
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discuss changing them. However, if you simply ignore the policies regarding |
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the checkpoint_release trees then your code may be removed and/or your |
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access revoked. |
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<h2> |
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What about bitkeeper</h2> |
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We are looking at bitkeeper (www.bitkeeper.com). It looks cool, but policies |
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are still important. Any experience, suggestions let us know. Watch this |
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space! |
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<p>Questions, comments e-mail: code.czars@mitgcm.org |
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<br> |
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<hr WIDTH="100%"> |
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<table CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="100%" NOSAVE > |
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<tr NOSAVE> |
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<td><font size=-1>Last modified on $Date: 2001/02/16 02:00:47 $</font></td> |
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<td> |
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<div align=right><font size=-1>CVS: $Source: /u/gcmpack/mitgcm.org/../cvspolicy.html,v |
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$Revision: 1.7 $</font></div> |
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