[python-committers] Providing .tgz sources

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Am 05.12.2010 20:40, schrieb Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven:
> -On [20101205 20:23], "Martin v. Löwis" (martin at v.loewis.de) wrote:
>> For those of us involved in the release process, every single file is a
>> big problem, indeed. Seriously.
> 
> Correct me if wrong, but isn't rolling up a tgz, tbz2, or txz not a matter
> of repeating the same actions on a tarball you already have, namely merely
> compressing the resulting tarball that you already have. Easy enough to
> script/put in a Makefile.
> 
> Which only leaves generating hashes/sig files, uploading, and linking it on
> the site. All of which can be automated to a high degree.
> 
> So what exactly is the big problem here then?

One problem is that it is not automated (at least not when I do it,
nor is the creation of the release page automated).

The next problem is that, with so many files, it becomes just not
feasible to test them all. As a consequence, you risk releasing broken
files. For example, when Benjamin released both 2.7.1 and 3.1.3 on the
same day, I had to produce 16 files. I lost track of what files where
in what state, and broke some of them. I didn't test all installers
I built.

The last problem is that the release page gets cluttered, confusing
users as to what file they need to download for what purpose.

Regards,
Martin