Re: CVS repository synchronization for RefTeX

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> There will be standalone releases of RefTeX.  That means files for
> building and installing RefTeX as well as files like README, INSTALL,
> etc. would have to be added to Emacs' repository.

Those can easily be put into the `admin' subdirectory which is not included
in Emacs releases.

> And we'll probably have to jump through some hoops for building
> documentation and putting it into a RefTeX tarball as reftex.texi
> currently is located in the man directory.

Right, you'd have to do a bit of extra work to bring the various files from
`admin', `man', `lisp', ... into a single directory when building
the tarball.

> Then there might be the problem that RefTeX is not in a releasable
> state at the time an Emacs release is about to happen.  Suppose I
> would have had a major and risky change for RefTeX waiting to be
> checked in about a year ago and held it back because Emacs is about to
> be released.  I'd probably still not have it checked in.  Such a
> situation nothing I'd be looking forward to.  Of course in an urgent
> case one can back out such changes, but if you can avoid it ...

That's what branches are for.  No problem here.

> What about branching?  IIUC CVS branches can only be created for a
> whole module.

You understand incorrectly.  In CVS each file is handled separately (so to
a large extent, the notion of "module" only exists in the documentation of
CVS rather than in its code and behavior), so you can have separate branches
on a file-by-file basis.  It's generally saner to have the same branches on
"every" file, but it's perfectly OK to have a branch only on a well-defined
subset of the files, such as have a RefTeX-only branch on the
RefTeX-related files.

> Would it be okay to create a branch for all of Emacs if
> one for RefTeX only were necessary?

That would be OK as well, although not needed.

> If RefTeX is to be maintained in Emacs' repository I'd actually like
> to have all files (including documentation) in one dedicated
> directory.

That would probably not be an option.  Although, starting from the Arch
version of Emacs's repository, you could easily create an Arch archive for
RefTeX which automatically tracks all the RefTeX files (and only them), and
placed in a single directory or any other way you want.


        Stefan