[Buildbot-commits] [Buildbot] #669: Clean up VC modes

[Buildbot]

#669: Clean up VC modes
------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
Reporter:  dustin       |       Owner:  dustin                                             
    Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new                                                
Priority:  major        |   Milestone:  0.8.2                                              
 Version:  0.7.12       |    Keywords:  svn hg git cvs p4 bk darcs monotone arch, ship-this
------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
Changes (by zooko):

 * cc: zooko@… (added)


Comment:

 Modern darcs stores a cache of known patches in {{{~/.darcs/cache}}} and
 uses patches from that cache instead of downloading them from the remote
 host. On the bright side, that means that {{{mode=clobber}}} is almost
 exactly as fast as {{{mode=update}}}. On the  dark side, if there is a bug
 in darcs or a corruption in your local filesystem (for example the patches
 stored in {{{~/.darcs/cache}}} have been corrupted, then you can't work-
 around this problem by using {{{mode=clobber}}}!

 So going forward, it might make sense for darcs users to have three
 options:

 1. a mode which deletes the build directory and creates a new one before
 doing {{{darcs get --lazy}}}. This is equivalent to the current
 {{{mode=clobber}}} and is nice and fast and clean. This mode should be the
 default.

 2. a mode like 1. but which also passes the {{{--no-cache}}} option to
 darcs. This would be useful only for working-around filesystem corruption
 or darcs bugs. It would be ideal if it were triggerable through the web
 interface so that people could try it just to ''check'' if the problem
 they are seeing is due to filesystem corruption or darcs bugs. (99% of the
 time this super-ultra-clean mode would yield the same results as the
 normal mode 1. so then they would know to look elsewhere for the
 explanation of their problems.)

 3. a mode which leaves the build directory in place, equivalent to the
 current {{{mode=update}}}. This would be a little bit faster, but not a
 lot, and of course it is a lot messier. I would hope that people would not
 use this mode, but I'm sure somebody will want it for good or bad reasons
 and we should provide it.

 If you really want to squeeze darcs into the two-mode model, then I
 recommend that both modes implement 1. and there is no difference between
 the two modes. ;-)

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://buildbot.net/trac/ticket/669#comment:12>
Buildbot <http://buildbot.net/>
Buildbot: build/test automation