[python-committers] branches and merging

[Steve Holden]

Dirkjan Ochtman wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 17:52, Michael Foord <mfoord at python.org> wrote:
>> What is the risk of going ahead with a broken system?
>>
>> The crux of the matter is that building Python for Windows could break if
>> someone accidentally commits the wrong line-endings for a few specific files
>> (Visual Studio project and configuration files - do I understand
>> correctly?). If this happens, how hard a job would it be to find and fix the
>> problem?
> 
> That wouldn't happen, because we'd have pre-push hooks in place that
> prevent changesets changing something for the worse from going into
> the central repository. That places a certain burden on people who run
> into these issues to fix up their changesets, though. The argument
> was, I think, that it's not reasonable for Windows developers to have
> to spend time on fixing up their own changesets when other developers
> don't have to do so.
> 
>> The risk *seems* reasonably low, people on non-Windows platforms are
>> unlikely to touch those files and they are unlikely to be edited by hand,
>> and if the cost of fixing the problem is low it seems reasonable to migrate
>> earlier rather than later.
> 
> IMO the risk is negligible, due to the aformentioned precautions.
> 
>> Would it help for the PSF to pay someone to do the necessary testing +
>> coding to ensure the problem is fixed and is there a likely person we could
>> contract?
> 
> Matt Mackall, the founder of Mercurial, might be available. Martin
> Geisler is the person who did most of the work on the eol extension so
> far, including getting a Windows laptop from his university to try
> some things, but I'm not sure he's available either. I could ask
> around, though, if the PSF thinks spending money on this is
> worthwhile.
> 
The PSF would look to the developer community for advice on this issue,
but if it's holding the DVCS switch up I can't think of many objections
to spending a modest sum to remove the issue.

regards
 Steve
-- 
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