[PATCH] Repo layout

[Ben Collins-Sussman]

On 12/20/05, Martin A. Brooks <martin at hinterlands.org> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Blair Zajac wrote:
> > The standard method of dealing with this is using the mailer.py and a
> > mailer.conf that sends email to the people that care about particular
> > portions of the repository, so people don't have th slog through emails
> > they don't care about.
>
> I've looked and mailer.py does not appear to be mentioned anywhere in
> the book at present.

That's because it talks about commit-email.pl, which was the precursor
to mailer.py.  Both are still in use, those mailer,py is more popular
these days.

>
> > Regarding repository administration, it's much easier to have a single
> > repository that contains all the projects and manage the mailer.conf
> > file than it is to have one repository for each project, as you'll still
> > need to manage the mailer.conf's to get the correct email addresses for
> > each repository.
>
> I disagree.  There are situations where this is the case, but it's not
> universally correct.  If you have non-overlapping projects then seperate
> repos are easier to manage, even more so if there are two distinct sets
> of users commiting.  I'm sure this scenario works for you, it will
> certainly not work for everyone.

Why is it easier to manage N separate lists of users, N separate lists
of authorization rules, and N separate sets of hook scripts, rather
than just managing 1 of each?   You say that this proposition isn't
universally true, but don't say why.  I've never heard anyone argue
the other direction.


>
> Mentioning mailer.py would require an addtional explanatory section
> which I'm certainly not best qualified to write as I've never used it.
> Perhaps you and I could work together and come up with something?
>

I think it would be great to update the book to discuss mailer.py
rather than commit-email.pl.  It's more popular and more flexible.