gettext: Distributed Development
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1 13.6.1 Avoiding version mismatch in distributed development
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1 In a project development with multiple developers, there should be a
1 single developer who occasionally - when there is desire to upgrade to a
1 new ‘gettext’ version - runs ‘gettextize’ and performs the changes
1 listed in ⇒Adjusting Files, and then commits his changes to the
1 repository.
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1 It is highly recommended that all developers on a project use the
1 same version of GNU ‘gettext’ in the package. In other words, if a
1 developer runs ‘gettextize’, he should go the whole way, make the
1 necessary remaining changes and commit his changes to the repository.
1 Otherwise the following damages will likely occur:
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1 • Apparent version mismatch between developers. Since some ‘gettext’
1 specific portions in ‘configure.ac’, ‘configure.in’ and
1 ‘Makefile.am’, ‘Makefile.in’ files depend on the ‘gettext’ version,
1 the use of infrastructure files belonging to different ‘gettext’
1 versions can easily lead to build errors.
1
1 • Hidden version mismatch. Such version mismatch can also lead to
1 malfunctioning of the package, that may be undiscovered by the
1 developers. The worst case of hidden version mismatch is that
1 internationalization of the package doesn’t work at all.
1
1 • Release risks. All developers implicitly perform constant testing
1 on a package. This is important in the days and weeks before a
1 release. If the guy who makes the release tar files uses a
1 different version of GNU ‘gettext’ than the other developers, the
1 distribution will be less well tested than if all had been using
1 the same ‘gettext’ version. For example, it is possible that a
1 platform specific bug goes undiscovered due to this constellation.
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