[mythtv] New Install - 0.16 or CVS?

Neil Davidson lists at backslash.co.uk
Sat Oct 30 19:59:47 UTC 2004


I'm not a developer, but have been reading the list for a while. What
seems to be the norm for this project is to submit a patch to the list for
people to apply and test on their own systems. Then when it has been
bashed about a bit and is considdered stable enough for wider consumption
it is commited to CVS.

I guess this could cause problems if patches conflict, but usually there
isn't enough of them to cause too much confusion :)

> Rick, I am involved in several other open source projects, all provide
> some method of seperating fixes to released versions and new changes
> that have not yet been fully tested.
>
> I'm not being critical, but it's surprising to me to see a project the
> size of mythtv that has no development quide or CVS structure
> established to maintain a stabled/released version, as well as an
> unstable/testing version.
>
> For example, surely there have been fixes to 0.16 that have been fullly
> tested and committed since 0.16 was released. Since there is no branch
> for 0.16 fixes, these changes are committed to the same branch (HEAD)
> that all other changes are committed to. There appears to be no way to
> seperate these two types of fixes given the existing CVS structure.
>
> A common approach is to create a branch for a released version for fixes
> (ie. release-0-16-fixes) and allow new development to continue on the
> HEAD. True, this does cause additional work for the
> developers/maintainers to ensure that you don't reintroduce bugs by
> forgetting to merge changes from the fixes branch to the HEAD, but it
> has the advantage that the most stable release of the product is always
> available.
>
> I asked the original question regarding 0.16 vs CVS HEAD stability. What
> I'd like, which I presume is what most mythtv users would like, is the
> most stable version of mythtv. Due to the current CVS structure, it
> would appear that I have to pick 0.16 or CVS HEAD.
>
> Again, I hope that I didn't offend anyone involved in mythtv
> development. It looks like a great project and I wish my h/w would get
> here already so I can actually start building... :)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff Thompson
>
> Richard Hamnett wrote:
>
>>I find the whole idea of asking how stable CVS is, kinda silly....
>>it's like asking how long's a piece of string. I could check out CVS
>>one day and do a build which is stable, but i could check out a day or
>>two later and have it bug ridden, the whole nature of CVS is that it
>>is unstable and constantly evolving... if you catch it on a bad day,
>>then unlucky!
>>
>>Rick
>>
>>
>>On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 08:49:47 +1000, Mark Spieth <mark at dclabs.com.au>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I too use CVS HEAD most of the time. very stable and have not seen
>>> problems
>>>since just after I started in august.
>>>my process was to
>>>1. extract the source for the latest stable version package (debian for
>>> me)
>>>2. make sure it works by makeing packages and installing and running ;-)
>>>3. check out HEAD in a different dir
>>>4. move all CVS dirs and the debian dir into the stable extracted tree.
>>> a
>>>nice script will do this for you
>>>5. change the version in debian/changelog to something like 0.16.0 (my
>>> dev
>>>version number for packages)
>>>6. change the root dir to mythtv-0.16.0 (same as step 5)
>>>7. got to root dev dir (see step 6) and cvs up -d
>>>8. do a fakeroot make -f debian/rules clean binary
>>>
>>>and you have new packages to install which are based on CVS HEAD but
>>> have
>>>the odd package mod (deb has 2).
>>>redhat and others should have a similar setup method.
>>>be careful not to update during a partial commit so you have to read the
>>>commit list too.
>>>If you find something wrong. fix it and submit a patch :)
>>>cheers
>>>mark
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>----- Original Message -----
>>>From: "Kevin Kuphal" <kuphal at dls.net>
>>>To: "Development of mythtv" <mythtv-dev at mythtv.org>
>>>Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004 8:17 AM
>>>Subject: Re: [mythtv] New Install - 0.16 or CVS?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Jeff Thompson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Hi, I'm waiting for newegg to deliver all of the components for my
>>>>>first mythtv system. I'm trying to decide whether I should install
>>>>>using the 0.16 release or go with the CVS HEAD version. Can anyone
>>>>>using CVS HEAD comment on the stability vs. the 0.16 release?
>>>>>
>>>>>On a related note, the CVS tree doesn't appear to use branches as part
>>>>>of the normal development process. While each release is tagged in
>>>>>CVS, it would appear that there is no "stable" branch for fixes to the
>>>>>latest release. Are all fixes to the released version and bleeding
>>>>>edge changes made to the HEAD?
>>>>>
>>>>>I have searched, but did not find a document explaining the mythtv
>>>>>development process, so I apologize if this information is available
>>>>>somewhere.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>I have not found MythTV CVS to be unstable and I run it nearly 100% of
>>>>the time, even shortly after releases as the CVS HEAD quickly adds new
>>>>features and is in near constant development.  I have rarely run into
>>>>any showstopper bugs in CVS and those that are found are fixed promptly
>>>>once reported.  For example, just a week or so ago I was experiencing
>>>> an
>>>>occasional segfault and with only a few rounds of reports here with
>>>>Isaac, he was able to fix my specific issue.
>>>>
>>>>I wouldn't have any issue running MythTV CVS HEAD.  I would be more
>>>>sensitive to the revisions of your drivers and other components which
>>>>are far more likely to cause problems.
>>>>
>>>>Kevin
>>>>
>>>>_______________________________________________
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>>>>http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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