[chef] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Cookbook Releases just for you

[Ronan Amicel < >]

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 18:19, Bryan McLellan < "> > wrote:

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 8:35 PM, Ronan Amicel < "> > wrote:
> I'm talking about the automated notifications, which are pretty
> content-free. Here is an example:
>
>> Hello Ronan Amicel,
>> A new version of the nginx cookbook has been uploaded to the Opscode
>> community site.
>> You can find the new version at
>> https://community.opscode.com/cookbooks/nginx.

Ronan, I've opened an internal feature request to improve this, but I
had a hard time designing it. What content do you have in mind?

At least, it should include the current and previous version numbers.

A diff either in the email or a link to a diff-tool built into the web
site sounds great in theory, but I can see many situations where it
isn't going to be helpful because of major changes or confusing
changes when you don't have the convenience of the history of SCM
commits.

A changelog would require a new metadata mechanism, such as a a
changelog.md file with a schema for entries so that the website could
parse it and add the changes to the email. Then you would have to get
authors to use the mechanism. This could be encouraged by adding a
"The cookbook author did not provide a changelog entry for this
release." message, but getting everyone to do it right might not
provide a lot of value for the cost. What first comes to mind for me
is the debian changelog, which provides all the features you want, but
requires a number of tools, syntax checking, and a community
requirement for its completion for it to be that useful.

Any other ideas?

Some packages already include a changelog section in their README file. Now that it is displayed on the community site, I can quickly get a sense of what's new by following the link in the email and scanning the page. For example: http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks/nginx That's good enough for me, without needing to add new metadata (although standardization and guidelines may be useful).

However, other packages don't do this, and I am left to wonder what's new in this version, and my best hope is to to the source on github and read the commit messages and/or diff between tags (or wait for Joshua's email on this list). For example: http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks/apache

-- 
Ronan Amicel

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