Re: `about-emacs' - what about the revno?

[Stefan Monnier]

> So for what we use the revision information? How it helps to know which
> was the last commit from trunk included on a build?

It relates his code to the one in our repository, i.e. to something
about which we know something.

> What's the use case?

When he reports a bug that's supposedly been fixed recently, we can know
whether his report is because he uses an old version that doesn't yet
have the patch applied.  This has already happened a few times over the
last few months.
That's the only use-case I know for a "revision information".

> Having the revision-id you can test if the sources comes straight from
> Savannah. If it doesn't, the bug is his business, as we have no way of
> figuring out what changes his build contains.

Yes, that's also a valid approach.

> A revision-id uniquely identifies the state of a branch, the revision
> number does not. For what we need a number that may or may not
> correspond to some commit on `trunk'?

I never suggested to use just "bzr revno", instead I suggest to use "the
revno on the trunk of the common ancestor".  It also uniquely identifies
a particular revision, and moreover it's a revision which we know.
And being a revno makes it slightly more convenient since you can more
easily (i.e. in your own head) compare two revnos to know whether it
contains a particular patch.


        Stefan