RE: Build environments using CVS

[Jim.Hyslop]

Brian Blignaut wrote:
> Firstly let me say that if this is not the appropriate place 
> to ask this question I apologize, I am just not sure where 
> else to post.
Yes, this is the appropriate place to ask.

> I am trying to setup a build process that works 
> with CVS tags and am having a bit of a problem.
> 
> The Build Environment
> 
> 
> 1. Development - developer's adding/changing/fixing code
> 2. Testing - with software testers, and test data - TEST tag
> 3. Release - Software built for release to client - LIVE tag
> 
> 
> The Problem
> Deleting files from CVS retains the TEST, LIVE tags.  As a 
> result the files that not meant to be built are being 
> included in TEST, LIVE builds.
> 
> 
> The Details
> 
> What I am trying to achieve is the ability to prevent files 
> from entering the "Testing" and hence "Release" phases. So 
> developers can make changes to existing source files and be 
> confident that their changes will not be built into the 
> "Testing" and "Release" phases until they are satisfied with 
> the changes. 
> 
> The problem I am having is that when files are deleted, they 
> still retain their TEST or LIVE tags and as such are updated 
> in to the "Testing" and "Release" environments, when this is 
> not desired.
It sounds to me like you are re-using the tags "TEST" and "LIVE". I'd
recommend using unique tags instead, e.g. proj-rev-x-y-build-z

If you really want to re-use TEST and LIVE tags, then you should use these
in conjunction with the unique tags. You will have to manually delete the
TEST and LIVE tags before you remove the file. You might want to write a
small script to do this, and encourage everyone to use the script rather
than directly issuing the command 'cvs remove'.

Actually, you can probably enforce this using the commitinfo script - if a
file is being removed, and it has a TEST or LIVE tag, the commitinfo script
can abort the commit with an error message telling the user to remove the
tags first.

-- 
Jim Hyslop
Senior Software Designer
Leitch Technology International Inc. ( http://www.leitch.com )
Columnist, C/C++ Users Journal ( http://www.cuj.com/experts )