Proposal to reorganize branches in the DocBook repository

[Norman Tovey-Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

Hi folks,

Apologies for spamming the list. I donât know how many of you care about
this. It wonât have any substantive impact on the work products that the
TC produces so it isnât important that you care (or even have an
opinion). If âDocBook repositoryâ and âgitâ and âbranchesâ arenât things
youâre interested in, you can stop reading now and no harm will befall
you. :-)

The github.com/docbook/docbook repository where we store the schema
artifacts that are under development is currently organized with
branches:

  master          : Effectively the last published release
  docbook-5.1     : The 5.1 release
  docbookâ5.2-dev : The âdevelopmentâ branch for 5.2
  docbook50-rewind: The 5.0 release (it has an odd name because
                    we failed to tag the 5.0 release and I had
                    to reconstruct it)
  *               : random other feature branches

I probably proposed this organization, but Iâve come to think itâs not
right. It means that the master branch, which everyone sees, appears
moribund with no commits for months or years. Itâs also slightly more
complicated to publish beta releases (and real releases) automatically
off of different branches every time.

We already have stable branches for the actual releases. I propose that
we adopt this organization instead:

  master          : The current development branch for V.next
  docbookâ5.2     : The 5.2 release (which weâll create when 5.2
                    is released).
  docbook-5.1     : The 5.1 release
  docbook50-rewind: The 5.0 release
  *               : random other feature branches

Itâs a small change but it makes some of the work Iâm trying to do
*right now* simpler and it means that the branch everyone expects to see
first when the come to the repository will appear active and reflect the
latest changes.

Thereâs nothing here that changes releases, and thereâs nothing that
prevents anyone from getting the branch that has a particular release on
it. It just moves things around a bit.

Iâd like to make this change, but I donât want to do it without giving
everyone who might care a chance to voice an opinion.

If you think this is a bad idea, please say so.

If you think this is a good idea, please say so.

If you want more time to think about it, or you want to ask questions,
please say so.

As I said, the change doesnât have any material impact really on what
the TC produces, so if there are no ânoâ votes or âI need more time
votesâ over the next couple of days, Iâm going to go ahead and do it.

At that time, Iâll also setup automatic builds and make a 5.2b10a alpha
release of both DocBook and Publishers. Unless someone objects, of
course. Which is absolutely fine, Iâm trying to get some things done,
but Iâm not trying to railroad anything past anyone.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

--
Norman Tovey-Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>
https://nwalsh.com/

> It is better to waste one's youth than to do nothing with it at
> all.--Georges Courteline

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