If you want a consistent, easy-to-use repository, use a script to build directories and copy in your content, which gives consistency as a side-effect of making things easier to move around.
Anyone who has tried to download software form a repository can tell when the ownership changes hands: the directory structure changes in subtle ways. There’s a dot in the path now, there wasn’t before, or capitalization changes. This isn’t a problem until you try to use the repository in an automated fashion: scripting and tools. Suddenly, a change from “V” to “v” requires an entirely new case, as if it’s a whole new repository on a different server.
NOTE: if the files are moved around manually, and the owner of those hands doing the moving is a bit flakey or random, then this sort of speed-wobble might as well count as changing the ownership, only more frequently (every release)
People will have a problem with this, but they’ll never tell you just as they’ll never tell you that your shoes don’t match your belt… but unlike fashion faux-pas, inconsistency with directories actually impacts others.
Don’t be a flake. Be consistent. A script helps you do that.
Additionally, if the script is the final part of the build process, it reduces the manual steps to a build. I would recommend either right before or right after running your self-tests.
Recent Comments