Re: CVS modules for translations

[Malcolm Tredinnick <malcolm commsecure com au>]

On Sun, 2003-12-28 at 05:23, Abel Cheung wrote:
> On 2003-12-27(Sat) 06:29:53 +0100, Carlos Perelló Marín wrote:
> > > http://www.cvshome.org/docs/manual/current/cvs_18.html#SEC160
> > > 
> > > For example, the translation-desktop-th module could consist of:
> > > 
> > > gnome-desktop/po/ChangeLog
> > > gnome-desktop/po/th.po
> > > gnome-panel/po/ChangeLog
> > > gnome-panel/po/th.po
> > > etc...
> > 
> > That could be the best solution, as it's easy to implement and does not
> > need to change any other team works.
> > 
> > The problem is that I don't think it's possible to do it with files,
> > AFAIK the CVSROOT/modules "alias" are only for directories (I have never
> > tried it with files so If someone else can try it with files and tell us
> > if it works...)
> 
> Yes, it can be done. Something like:
> 
> [deaddog@localhost ~] $ cat CVSROOT/modules
> ...............
> translation-desktop-de &acme/po/de.po &bug-buddy/po/de.po .......
> translation-desktop-el &acme/po/el.po &bug-buddy/po/el.po .......
> 
> But all the files listed _must_ exist, otherwise the alias will fail to
> expand -- and the virtual module can't be checked out.
> 
> 
> > > However, this would amount to a fairly large set of modules in the
> > > CVSROOT/modules file to maintain, and would probably need a little
> > > co-ordination with the gnome-sysadmin team. 
> 
> Yes, I'm seeing this as problematic as well. Maintaining the list isn't
> a trivial task, especially when new translations can possibly be
> committed everyday.
> 
> > > Crackpot idea, or workable?
> > 
> > If cvs supports it, it's the ideal one IMHO, although I see other small
> > problems with it, but it's better if we check that it works and then try
> > to fix the secondary problems.
> 
> And if someone is willing to devote his/her time on this, that is :-D
> If the module list file can be automagically updated constantly without
> paying effort, that's absolutely better.

Unforuntately, this won't quite work because of the way CVS handles the
modules file. The first time you check out a module, it consults
CVSROOT/modules to see if there is a virtual module. On subsequent
updates (even if you try to do the update as 'cvs checkout...'), it does
not look in this file. So you will not see any new packages that get
added to the translator's alias, which means that after a few months
everybody will be working from a different set of checked out
directories, leading to lots of confusion (and omissions). There are
similar problems when translations move onto a branch just prior to
releases, etc.

In practice, this kind of thing (checking out lots of varying files from
a number of modules) probably should be done with a script. Given that
we already have a list of packages to translate and branches, it may not
be too hard. Give me a day to think about it and I'll see what I can
come up with.

Cheers,
Malcolm