[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] version.sh: Always use latest tag for generated version number

[Timothy Gu]

On Fri, Mar 04, 2016 at 06:48:04PM +0100, Thilo Borgmann wrote:
> Am 04.03.16 um 17:57 schrieb Timothy Gu:
> > On Fri, Mar 04, 2016 at 10:55:42AM +0100, Thilo Borgmann wrote:
> >> Am 04.03.16 um 08:58 schrieb wm4:
> >>>
> >>> Being able to see the, well, version in the version output (instead of
> >>> random numbers) sounds like a pretty convincing argument.
> >>
> >> Neither a good play on words nor elaborative; not even helpful.
> >>
> >> You say they are random numbers, CE says it is continuous. What is correct?
> > 
> > It is continuous. But to the user's eye, N-71234 is no different from N-41234,
> > and hence "random."
> 
> I assume that if there is no difference in the user's eye between
> N-71234 and N-41234 then there is also no difference for that user
> between dev-123 and dev-346.

That's not the point. The point is that there is something before the dev
part, and that's what makes the difference.

When I said "no different," I meant except the fact that N-71234 is obviously
newer. The fact that it fails to convey any additional information is the
issue we are trying to attack.

> 
> 
> >> So what about the release tag? Well it is a quite useful extension because of
> >> the already mentioned possibility of determining the existing features at once.
> >> I'm pro adding it to the version string.
> >>
> >> The tag-tag? (devxy) I don't see it anywhere except in git and therefore it is
> >> uselessly redundant to the existing hash tag in my eyes. Why add another more
> >> roughly estimation of the users repo-state? I don't think this should be added
> >> to the version string.
> > 
> > Can you elaborate on this? I am not sure I understand everything you are
> > saying. Specfically, what is "devxy"?
> 
> The core concern about it is that is just redundant. I assume Timo to be
> correct about:
> 
> "A new dev tag is made every time a release is branched off, to indicate
> development of the next ffmpeg version started there, ..."
> 
> Then there is no gain of information in the dev-123 tag if there is
> already the release number given. In that case "v4.5-gdeabdef" tells me
> the very same as "v4.5-dev-123-gdeabdef" does. If Timo is correct, the
> can never be a "4.5-dev-789-abcdefg" tag. v4.5 is just enough.
> 
> Summing it all up for me, I think a release prefix would make perfect
> sense. Thus, switching from
> 
> N-12345-abcdefg
> 
> to
> 
> v4.5-N-12345-abcdefg
> 
> should be done for the sake of the users. There is at least CE wanting
> to stick with N-tags so why not? The only reason I can imagine for
> getting rid of N-tags and/or including dev-123 tags would be that a
> native git show command needs it to work properly as well as giving
> better human readable information.

I see where you are coming from. I will address this issue in my reply to
Reimar.

Timothy