Re: Reminder: new uploads ftp.gnome.org will have .tar.xz and .tar.bz2 (May 25th)

[Olav Vitters <olav vitters nl>]

On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 03:48:13PM +0100, Richard Hughes wrote:
> On 21 May 2011 14:34, Olav Vitters <olav vitters nl> wrote:
> > As from May 25 (once GNOME 3.0.2 stable has been released), new tarballs
> > on ftp.gnome.org will be uploaded as:
> >  - .tar.xz
> >  - .tar.bz2
> >
> > Meaning: no more .tar.gz for *new* uploads.
> 
> So does this mean for the release on Monday we should now change
> AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to be "no-dist-gzip dist-xz" ?

The Monday/Wednesday release would still have .tar.gz and .tar.bz2. The
intention was to ensure GNOME 3.0.x still has .tar.gz (and GNOME 3.2.x
still has tar.bz2).

After the GNOME 3.0.2 release, I'll change ftpadmin. It'll automatically
recompress anything into .tar.xz and .tar.bz2. So no changes for anyone
uploading tarballs. The script deals with the compression formats.

To speed up uploads and avoid recompression by ftpadmin, I want to
propose switching everything to something like:
  AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11 no-dist-gzip dist-xz])

Maybe even:
  AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11 no-dist-gzip dist-xz tar-ustar])
or:
  AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11 no-dist-gzip dist-xz tar-pax])

This as the current tar length limits can result problems (double sized
tarballs; ftpadmin detects this though).

There is a dicussion about this on:
  https://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/ModernAutotools

IMO requiring automake 1.11.1 is fine. Jhbuild will install that for you
anyway.

I don't have any opinion about which tar format is best to switch to:
 - tar-ustar
   still some limitations, possibly better supported?
 - tar-pax
   no limitations, POSIX standard
   Python only supports PAX since 2.6 (tarfile.py module; jhbuild just
   calls tar program, so is not impacted by this).

We should use something that won't cause problems, keeping in mind that:
 - After Nov, we expect people using tarballs so extract .tar.xz
 - we shouldn't make such changes too often (future proof)

So again: if you're uploading tarballs, you do not need to do anything
right away.
-- 
Regards,
Olav