Re: Alpha releases: How to tag

On Monday 03 August 2009 17:44:32 Tom Lane wrote:
> Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net> writes:
> > Does it need a version number change? Maybe just a tag (no branch) is
> > all that is required.
>
> I think that we do want the alpha releases to identify themselves as
> such. And we want a marker in CVS as to what state the alpha release
> corresponds to. Peter's label-and-undo approach seems like a kluge;
> and it doesn't scale to consider the possibility that we might
> want to re-release an alpha after fixing some particularly evil bug.
> A tag without a branch won't handle that either.
>
> I feel that making a branch is the way to go. If we try to get away
> with a shortcut, we'll probably regret it.

Another more lightweight alternative is to tag and then change the version
number and build the tarball, without another commit. This assumes that the
version number stamping is automated and reproducible, so you don't have to
record it in history.