[Vtigercrm-developers] Changing to patch mode of release

[Brian Devendorf]

Richie,

Patch releases may seem easier to manage, but they really become  
quite a bit more difficult. You will have to manage issues of which  
patches have been installed, or coming up with a mechanism to track  
patches. Then if some patches are replaced by other patches, you may  
need to come up with tools to revert the patches. From the support  
side of things, you will need to keep track of these patches  
independently. I think the problems are going to be very similar to  
the ones you saw when releasing dot releases a month apart.

I understand that there are still many issues in vtiger that need  
patching, updating, and fixing. I'm sure you are noticing that there  
is a significant overhead to any type of release. What I mean by this  
is that you don't just decide to release and hit your Easy button.  
You've got testing, validation, documentation updates, staging,  
packaging, and more.

Don't put more administrative work on your group than you need to. It  
reduces the effort you spend actually fixing and improving the  
product. And, it "cheapens" the product. When I see a product with  
many patch releases, I think, it's too bad they don't have better  
control of the quality of this product.

Brian


On Jan 19, 2007, at 4:42 AM, richie wrote:

> Hello!
>
> I would like to initiate the discussion on providing patch mode of  
> release post the 5.0.3.
>
> Reason for patch mode of release post 5.0.3:-
>
> Much easier format of release.
> Less pressure on team.
> Easy to identify the breakage segment(patch version that is)
> Easier to rollback the patch if need be (ie we can always say that  
> pl. do not use the patch and give a better one if need be. It is  
> much easier to do).
>
> I know that we have had a lot of debate about the release  
> versionings and have arrived at the current one. But owing to the  
> reasons mentioned above, I would like to have the convention  
> flexible enough to allow patch releases too.
>
> For this to happen, what all are the areas that ought to be taken  
> into consideration.
>
> Fathi, Jeff ...?
>
> Richie
>
> _______________________________________________
> Reach hundreds of potential candidates - http://jobs.vtiger.com

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