Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Ralph Lange <[email protected]> · Thu, 3 Jun 2004 10:36:38 +0200

Hi Geoff,

In general I would recommend CVS using its import and merging features
to handle such a situation, as you are indeed importing different
releases of different structures from different "vendor"s and apply
local changes and patches that you may want to keep (or not) through the
process of importing a new release.

To stay consistent and comprehensive you will have to use a strict
tagging scheme and follow standard procedures for applying local changes
and importing new vendor releases.

Putting different modules from different vendors under one TOP (like
- in your case - extensions) will always be a bit harder to manage than
keeping them in different TOPs, but it should be possible nevertheless.

There's a document by Andrew located in the 3.13 doc tree called "IOC
SCM Procedures Quick Reference Card" that describes a tagging scheme
along with the procedures for local patches and release imports.
Certainly path names, terms, and structures are APS flavour, but I'm
sure you will be able to get the idea and adopt/adapt it for your case.

We're using that scheme for much of the stuff from other sites (base
itself, certain device supports etc.) and are ... quite happy with
it. It's not dead easy to manage, but the task itself isn't simple, so
the approach seems fair enough.

Hope that helps,
Ralph

>>>>> "Geoff" == Geoff Savage <[email protected]> writes:

  > Hi,
  > One of my current confusions with EPICS is how to organize 
  > extension/application software developed here at Fermilab and downloaded 
  > from other sites.  I'm wondering how other sites tackle this issue.  Do 
  > we need to specify a standard way to package our work for distribution?

  > One particular thing I have noticed is with extensions.  Each extension 
  > often includes extensions/Makefile and extensions/src/Makefile.  When I 
  > unpack a new extension with these makefiles included I lose any changes 
  > I have made to the versions on disk.  This also includes overwriting 
  > R3.14 makefiles with R3.13 makefiles.  Comments?

  > Thanks in advance.

  > Geoff

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System