Configuration & Change Management

This Blog Has Moved

I have been fighting off comment and trackback spam and have been finally driven to move to another tool. It is with great sadness that I leave my beloved PyDS and PyCS (python rules!) tools. This weblog has been moved to http://www.fishandcross.com/blog and is now being driven by WordPress.

I have imported the posts from this site have not been able to get the comments. I trust this site will stay available.

git, source code control, and community

Interesting things are happening with the introduction of a new tool (GIT) to manage the development / maintainence of the Linux Kernel. 

Best Practices for Software Builds

Here is a good paper by John Birtley from BuildMonkey with some common sense advice about building software sensibly.  Along the way he has some good advice on SCM as well.

No methodology has yet focused on the component that all development projects share - the build.

One of the reasons for this is that the term build is interpreted differently by different people

• The development team sees it as compilation and assembly
• The integration team see it as the bringing together of all of the components in the application in a format suitable for release
• The deployment team see it as something which produces the artifacts that they have to install and configure
• The testing team see it as something which produces the artifacts that they have to test
• The Project Manager sees it as an opaque step that nobody is entirely responsible for
• The end customer should not see it at all

[via CM Crossroads - Today's posts]

Java Version Control - CVS or Subversion? [Paul River's Weblog]

At work we're currently using Sourcesafe, and after 3 weeks I've already had the "Sourcesafe doesn`t delete deleted files" issue. Not to mention the checkout model - yech.

ClearCase to Subversion

As noted here I am working on a conversion of a ClearCase repository to Subversion. Since there appear to be no resources for this available I wrote a simple perl script that handles the conversion in a relatively simplistic manner. In short, it checks out each version of a ClearCase file and checks it into Subversion, therefore creating the history. It's simple but effective and it worked quite well to convert our entire repository (some 30+ hours for the whole thing..).

[via kasia in a nutshell]

Subversion [Vivek's Weblog]

O'Reilly has a new book coming out on Subversion. The links has pointers to a sample chapter.

jWebUnit 1.2 Released [Jotka's CAFE]

jWebUnit is a Java framework that facilitates creation of acceptance tests for web applications. It evolved from a project where we were using HttpUnit and JUnit to create acceptance tests.

Use Jython to Write Ant Tasks

This is an article I wrote that looks at how to add scripted behaviour to ant builds. It details the steps to write a custom Ant task in Jython, compile it and install it into Ant so it can be used as any other task in an ant build. The article also takes a quick look at an alternate implementation using Groovy.

Source Control Best Practices: A must read for developers [Paul Hammant : Inversionism]

Points out a good article on best practices for versioning oriented SCM systems.

Ant 1.6.1 import and macrodef for modular build files [system log]

Ant is growing up. Here is an example of someone working through refactoring their build to take advantage of the new import and macrodef features in Ant 1.6.1.

The main features I have used are the 'import' task and the 'macrodef' task. The 'import' task imports (duh) a another ant file and includes it in the current file. Macrodef is a way to define a new Ant task in an Ant build itself. Macrodef allows you to define standard tasks that have attributes and elements given to them when they are called.

Sounds like Ant is getting stronger and smarter. Here is a good introduction by Mike Spille that explains why the import feature means we can finally use Ant in large enterprise builds.

The Sum of Ant

Critical thinking about ant ... and build control.

Blogs and RSS feeds from CVS commits, and automated unit testing

More thinking on where RSS + CM + project management can go. Clearly RSS can be the medium that allows you to put an awsome project portal toegher pretty quickly.

CVS Commit + Weblog = Changeblog

In reading Jeremy's post again, I noticed I missed his point about RSS feeds from CVS. This is an interseting idea. RSS could give you a day in the life of the project. Very handy.

Community Software in Configuration Management

Jeremey points an awsome idea for extending CM systems (in this case CVS but the idea could be applied pretty broadly). Have the CM tool post to a blog as work is finished. Probably even more relevant to Change Management lifecycle tools.

Also take a look at Jason's notebook article where he has an article about Perl Blogging techniques that includes an updated ChangeBlog.

CVS as a means of keeping track of your life

More weird uses of CM... actually I do this too (but not with CVS) :-)

Source code control for the lone programmer

Reasons why you should do source code control. Always.

CVS Commit Notifications via E-mail

How to setup CVS Email notifications.

Ant 1.6 Makes an Appearance

Apache Ant 1.6beta1 has been released. This release requires JDK 1.2. Lots of good stuff around namespaces giving tasks some protection.

Enterprise Build System

Here is something that looks interesting for complex J2EE systems looking for advanced build automation.

Concurrent Development is Hard

Interesting post that points to how difficult large scale software development can really be:

The bigger your team, the bigger your company, the more stuff you have going on, then the more powerful you want your SCM tool to be. Even still, Ive run across teams of significant size who prefer to use only the basics. The truth is that concurrent development is hard. Good SCM tools make it easier, but some people prefer to adopt processes which prevent complexity instead of using tools which help manage complexity. But for those who dare, good version control systems offer several ways to maintain your sanity even while lots of things are going on at one time.

This is something that I frequently point out as well. I work hard to implement a solution that is as simple as possible, while still allowing the complex behaviour known as concurrent release development to occur where necessary. If your team can release code in a serial fashion, so much the better for you.

Often however, you can't dodge the bullet. Business needs require us to work on more than one release at a time. Very often development teams and management forget that what they are trying to do is hard. Too often they end up blaming their tools. This often leads to tool churn and the inevitable lost time, money and patience. And of couse, exacerbates the problems because what started out as difficult becomes near to impossible as the tools change out from under the development teams.

Araxis Merge for merging code from multiple branches

Here is a pointer to a great merge/diff tool for win32.

Configuration Management Patterns

This book has been out for a while. Not a bad read. I may post a more indepth review here later.

Dearth of CM Blogs ....

Not sure why, but I have had real trouble finding others who are interested in writing about Configuration Management topics in the blogosphere ... Watch this space in the future as I'll add whatever I do find... and maybe even some of my own thoughts.