Re: [boost] [Git] Documentation for Git and Modular Boost conversion

Subject: Re: [boost] [Git] Documentation for Git and Modular Boost conversion
From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-12-07 15:25:01

(cc'ing boost-steering ...)

On 12/7/2012 12:09 PM, Michael Fawcett wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 2:46 PM, Rene Rivera <grafikrobot_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 1:25 PM, Eric Niebler <eric_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Once the switch is made, subversion will be made read-only. It won't go
>>> away, but development will take place in the modularized git repos.
>>> Changes from git won't be pushed back into svn; that would become
>>> increasingly difficult as the structure of the repos diverge. Anybody
>>> who makes use of svn externals to track boost development will need to
>>> update to git.
>>>
>>> Is this scenario common enough that we should have a documented
>>> migration path for such people?
>>
>> Since I'm one of the persons under that scenario my biased opinion  is that
>> yes it's common enough. But obviously I don't know how widespread the
>> scenario is.
> 
> I've since moved on to another company, but at my last job at least
> three projects I worked on had a similar setup.  They wouldn't be
> affected though since the externals were set up to the /releases/
> directory and grabbed a certain tag (e.g. boost 1.41.0).  I think this
> is probably the most common externals scenario.
> 
> It seems the only people immediately affected would be those with
> svn:externals to boost/trunk, which seems like an unlikely scenario.

That seems unlikely to me also. Rene?

> Those with existing externals wishing to upgrade to the latest boost
> release would need that migration path, however.

This could be accommodated easily, I think, but it's something we'd have
to add. There will be a script used by the release managers to
reassemble a monolithic boost from the modules for a release. All that
would be needed would be to run that script nightly and push the results
into a separate git repo for people to track. Naturally, that repo
should be read-only for everybody except the bot executing the script.

-- 
Eric Niebler
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com