[Debian-med-packaging] Vcs-Fields: [Was: r7070 - in trunk/packages/bioperl/tags: . 1.6.901-1/debian]

[Charles Plessy]

Le Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 01:23:59PM +0200, Andreas Tille a écrit :
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Charles Plessy <plessy at alioth.debian.org> -----
> 
> Author: plessy
> Date: 2011-06-17 08:36:14 +0000 (Fri, 17 Jun 2011)
> New Revision: 7070
> ...
> -Vcs-Browser: http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/debian-med/trunk/packages/bioperl/trunk/?rev=0&sc=0
> -Vcs-Svn: svn://svn.debian.org/svn/debian-med/trunk/packages/bioperl/trunk/
> ...
> +Vcs-Browser: http://svn.debian.org/viewvc/debian-med/trunk/packages/bioperl/trunk/
> +Vcs-Svn: svn://svn.debian.org/debian-med/trunk/packages/bioperl/trunk/
> ...
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Charles, is there any evidence, that the old URLs will not work any more
> for the future and do you see any need to change this in general or is
> this just a personal preference (if yes, what advantages do you see).
> IMHO we should discuss the pros and cons to switch all our packages and
> adapt the policy accordingly.

Hi Andreas,

I am also very confused by the reorganisation on Alioth.  I wish that some
changes would be reverted, but it looks unlikely.  But in the meantime I
refrain from using the ‘anonscm’ URLs, to not give the impression that I am
satisfied.

Nevertheless, would the previous URL schemes be restored, removing
‘?rev=0&sc=0’ from the wsvn URLs will not impair their function.  The only
change is that target directory will be folder instead of unfolded.

In parallel, the removal of /svn/ or /git/ in the Vcs-Svn or Vcs-Git URL is not
a consequence of the reorganisation of Alioth.  It is old errors that are
propagated from cut and paste, including in our group policy.  Luckily, these
URLs are corrected either by redirection, or by /svn/svn or /git/git symlinks.
So correcting this can do only good.

In summary:

Vcs-Svn, Vcs-Git: old URLs work, but I do not know if it is only a transition.
having /svn or /git in is buggy: these are only needed for the svn+ssh or
git+ssh URLs, which are not the anonymous URLs expected for these fields.

Vcs-Browser: currently the old URLs are supported through redirection, and again
I do not know if this will last or if they will be deprecated some day.  As an
exception, the “?rev=0&sc=0” tails makes the redirection fail, and I think it
would be good to remove them when there is opportunity.

Have a nice week-end,

-- 
Charles