Re: Release tags

[Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>]

On 5 September 2012 04:24, Óscar Fuentes <ofv@wanadoo.es> wrote:
> Jason Rumney <jasonr@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> No use of a tag that I have ever seen was for a revision. It was for the
>> state of the source tree at that point in time. Release tags especially.
>>
>> If there are multiple Emacs 24.2 tags in the repository, how is one
>> supposed to know which is the real Emacs 24.2?
>
> Any of them will do, because the revision (and hence the tag) determines
> the complete state of the source tree.
>
> Plus the complete VC history that precedes that revision. So if the
> emacs-24 branch were magically lost, it could be partially recovered (VC
> history included) from any other branch that contains a merged revision
> that comes from emacs-24. (Partially means "except the revisions
> committed after the emacs-24 revision you have at hand.")
>
>

Just to clarify and get things back on track.

I cannot see any emacs-24.2 tag in the main trunk. I suspect (but
don't know for sure) that this is because the tag was not made in the
emacs-24 branch before it was merged back into trunk. I suspect that
the next merge from the emacs-24 branch will bring the tag into trunk.
I don't see any problem with that.

The reason I wanted the tag is that most of the time I run off the
head of the main trunk. However, sometimes, if the trunk has some
instabiity which is causing me problems, it is useful to have a known
'good state' in the trunk which allows me to check it out in a
convenient way. The tag provides that convenience - I don't have to
look back through the revisions to work out which difficult to
remember revison number corresponds to the last stable release version

Obviously, I could just check out the emacs-24 branch. However, I was
hoping to avoid having to either switch branches or have two separate
working trees - I find it more convenient to just maintain one tree.

An earlier post in this thread identifies the revision number where
the emacs-24.2 version was merged back into the dev trunk, so I can
achieve what I want using that revision number. The tag is a
convenience, but not essential.

Tim


-- 
Tim Cross