Mercurial repositories no longer work?

[Kelly O'Hair]

On Nov 9, 2010, at 3:42 AM, Alan Eliasen wrote:

> On 11/09/2010 03:13 AM, Alan Bateman wrote:
>> The web-discuss mailing list is the place for infrastructure  
>> discussion.
>> As it happens, someone started a discussion about this issue just a  
>> few
>> days ago:
>>
>> http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/web-discuss/2010-November/000139.html
>
>   Since this is an issue that affects every single OpenJDK  
> contributor,
> that may or may not be subscribed to every list, (I doubt most of us
> are,) it is critical that information about accessing the central
> repository (which is now effectively broken to anyone that uses  
> current
> versions of Mercurial, especially because the Forest extension is no
> longer maintained) is pushed to contributors, and the solutions to  
> that
> problem get actively published to every list, and are published to the
> official pages that explain how to check out and update OpenJDK as  
> soon
> as possible, which they haven't been.  (This is critical for an
> open-source project.)

I think you have made a bigger issue out of this than need be.

Simply stop using the forest extension and instead of one fclone  
command you can use
multiple clone commands, e.g.
   hg clone http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7                 jdk7
   hg clone http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7/corba        jdk7/corba
   hg clone http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7/jaxp          jdk7/jaxp
   hg clone http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7/jaxws        jdk7/jaxws
   hg clone http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7/langtools   jdk7/ 
langtools
   hg clone http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7/jdk           jdk7/jdk
   hg clone http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7/hotspot     jdk7/ 
hotspot
      -OR-
   for i in jdk7 jdk7/corba jdk7/jaxp jdk7/jaxws jdk7/langtools jdk7/ 
jdk jdk7/hotspot ; do
     hg clone http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/$i   $i
   done

Creating your clone is typically a one time affair, so this pain is  
limited and can easily
be scripted.

Every openjdk repository is an independent Mercurial repository, and  
most developers
only work in one of these repositories anyway.
Repeated operations on all repositories can easily be done with a  
simple shell loop, e.g.
   for i in `find . -type d -name .hg` ; do
     ( cd ${i}/.. && hg pull -u )
   done

I'll be adding some scripts to the jdk7 repo soon to help out with  
these operations.

The forest extension was simply a helper extension and was never  
critical to the use of
nested repositories.

>
>   Is there a contact at Oracle that is responsible for making the
> OpenJDK open and accessible?  Who is the maintainer of the pages that
> discuss how to check out and update OpenJDK?  Those pages are obsolete
> and broken.  Mercurial's forest extension is apparently obsolete and
> officially unmaintained.  What is the strategy to move OpenJDK  
> forward?

I see the lack of a forest extension as no serious impact on openjdk  
development.
Just a minor bump in the road.

>
>   I'm not subscribed to the web-discuss list, and its archive pages  
> are
> marked as "nofollow" for web robots, so nobody will find it with a web
> search.  You are asking that web robots do not follow links to any
> messages in the archive.  I searched but couldn't find it for this
> reason.  The thread posted above is not a solution; the only reply  
> is a
> dreadful hardcoded large program that kludges around the real problem
> and will break again in the future if any subdirectory is added.  It
> does not fix the problem that the official instructions to check out  
> and
> update OpenJDK sources no longer work, and that the official way to
> check out (the unsupported Forest extension) is no longer usable.

Eventually we will correct the documentation, and I'll try and send  
out some email or
do some blogs on ways to get around it.
You might try looking at:
   http://blogs.sun.com/kto/entry/mercurial_forest_pet_shell_trick

>
>   This is a major issue that must be addressed on all lists.  I hope
> that paid Oracle employees will communicate the necessary fix to all
> contributors on all lists, who try to contribute value to their  
> products
> for free.  Please forward this to the web-discuss list.

I really don't see this as a major issue, but I do feel it is an  
important issue.
We are all well aware of the problems with the forest extension and  
have been thinking
about alternatives. The fact that external mercurial extensions are  
broken so easily with each
Mercurial release has been a pain we have been living with for a long  
time.
It is nothing new to us, we live with it, fix it when we can or find  
an alternative and move forward.

-kto

>
> -- 
>  Alan Eliasen
>  eliasen at mindspring.com
>  http://futureboy.us/