[csw-maintainers] GAR safety check needed: UNCOMMITTED

[Ben Walton]

Excerpts from Dagobert Michelsen's message of Fri Mar 20 17:12:41 -0400 2009:

> > or at the very least, it mods the package name from its usual, to
> > insert "UNCOMMITTED" in the filename, so if someone is making a
> > package for test purposes, they dont "accidentally" submit it for
> > official release.
> >
> > I've had to deal with a whole slew of packages, with
> > PSTAMP=xxxxxx-UNCOMMITTED-xxxx
> 
> Sure, this can easily be done.

I think this should happen in two steps.

1. Add the check to checkpkg itself (that's what it's there for, after
   all).
2. Facilitate the call to checkpkg from GAR in a way that the
   maintainer can still generate package files without committing but
   the GAR process isn't considered quite complete.  This could be
   done by changing the package target to depend on two new targets
   like _packagefiles and _checkpkgs.  The maintainer would still call
   `make package` as per routine/habit, but could have package files
   to inspect even if not everything is committed.  This facilitates
   debugging dynamic prototypes for multi-package builds without
   committing (log clutter) for every little tweak.

This should achieve as much as can be done with technical solutions to
a human problem while still leaving the maintainer freedom to work as
needed.

That's my take, anyway.

Thanks
-Ben

-- 
Ben Walton
Systems Programmer - CHASS
University of Toronto
C:416.407.5610 | W:416.978.4302

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