What about a '--with-cvsrpm' option

[Ross Golder <ross golder org>]

I've noticed that in most of the GNOME CVS modules I've come across that
have a '.spec.in' file, the release number is set to 1. Recently, I've
been building RPMS out of CVS using the following commands :

$ cd <module_wd>
$ cvs update -Pd
$ ./autogen --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
$ make
$ make dist
$ rpm -ta <module>-<version>.tar.gz

Now, I install the package on my machine, and bung a copy up onto
<ftp://ftp.golder.org/pub/rossg/gnome2/> for anyone else to make use of.
Only trouble is, if I build more than once between releases, I have to
specify '--force' to RPM, and when I upload it overwrites the previous
build. Also, it implies by it's filename
(<package>-<version>-1.arch.rpm) that it's a standard release RPM, and
doesn't suggest that it is a CVS snapshot version. Some really dumbass
users might mistake these for stable versions and scratch their heads
when it all goes wrong.

So, to improve this process, I added a '--with-cvsrpm' option to one of
the modules, which replaces the release number with a datestamp in the
generated '.spec' file. This also serves as an indication of how recent
the CVS snapshot is (some modules aren't released very often). I think
this would be of use to anyone who builds RPMs out of CVS.

Basically, what do other people think?

If it's considered a good idea, are there any obstacles or procedures
for rolling this out across other modules?

--
Ross

Index: configure.in
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/gnome/ORBit2/configure.in,v
retrieving revision 1.55
diff -u -r1.55 configure.in
--- configure.in	2001/10/18 08:34:00	1.55
+++ configure.in	2001/10/20 11:28:29
@@ -198,6 +198,10 @@
 
 AC_SUBST(pkglibdir)
 
+dnl Set RPM release number
+AC_ARG_WITH(cvsrpm, [  --with-cvsrpm           set RPM spec file release number to a date string], RPMRELEASE=`date +%Y%m%d%H%M`, RPMRELEASE=1)
+AC_SUBST(RPMRELEASE)
+
 AC_OUTPUT([
 Makefile
 orbit2-config
Index: ORBit.spec.in
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/gnome/ORBit2/ORBit.spec.in,v
retrieving revision 1.8
diff -u -r1.8 ORBit.spec.in
--- ORBit.spec.in	2001/10/16 18:42:42	1.8
+++ ORBit.spec.in	2001/10/20 11:28:29
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Summary:	High-performance CORBA Object Request Broker.
 Name:		ORBit2
 Version:	@ORBIT_VERSION@
-Release:	1
+Release:	@RPMRELEASE@
 Source:		ftp://ftp.labs.redhat.com/pub/ORBit/%{name}-%{version}.tar.gz
 Group:		System Environment/Libraries
 Copyright:	LGPL/GPL