Compatibility between GNATS 3.x and 4.x? gnatsweb?

Compatibility between GNATS 3.x and 4.x? gnatsweb?

[Gerald Pfeifer]

Today I tried merging the changes since gnatsweb 2.6 into the existing
installation of GNATS 3.x and gnatsweb 2.6 (+ patches) on gcc.gnu.org.

In this case, and also when I just took vanilla gnatsweb CVS sources,
this failed to work against the current GNATS installation there:

  Error: HCPRUN500E Unrecognized command.
  Error: cannot understand ''
  Error: cannot understand ''

This means that gnatsweb CVS sources (which have some GNATS 4.0 patches)
won't work against a GNATS 3.x server, even though the README states
otherwise.

I assume that also means that gnatsweb 2.6 won't work against a GNATS 4.0
server, either, though I don't have a GNATS 4.0 server available for
testing now.

Are GNATS 3.x and 4.0 supposed to be incompatible? Or should it be
possible to update the GNATS server and keep existing clients?


That current gnatsweb CVS sources don't work against a 3.x server seems
like a bug to me, though I won't have time to address this anytime soon.

Anyone willing to help with that??

Gerald
-- 
Gerald "Jerry" pfeifer@dbai.tuwien.ac.at http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/~pfeifer/

Re: Compatibility between GNATS 3.x and 4.x? gnatsweb?

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "GP" == Gerald Pfeifer <pfeifer@dbai.tuwien.ac.at> writes:

    GP> Are GNATS 3.x and 4.0 supposed to be incompatible?

Yes.

    GP> Or should it be possible to update the GNATS server and keep
    GP> existing clients?

No.

There were major changes, regarding especially the query interface and
configuration, between the versions 3 and 4.  This has led to a
significant simplification of the gnatsd command set.  IMHO this implies
that:

- Though it might be technically possible to retain most of the gnatsd 3
  commands (I didn't check carefully), it would leave a lot of garbage
  in the gnatsd command set instead of really simplifying it.

- Since this is simplification, interfaces should benefit from it and
  should be updated to the new gnatsd command set.  It shouldn't be
  difficult once the gnatsd commands and the GNATS query language are
  documented.

- I don't consider a backward compatibility being a serious issue here,
  because I suppose most installed interfaces are tight to their server
  and are supposed to be upgraded together with the server.

[BTW, I'll be out of Internet soon, for about two weeks.  So don't panic
if I'll be completely quiet during that period.]

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

-- 
And why?

Re: Compatibility between GNATS 3.x and 4.x? gnatsweb?

[Gerald Pfeifer]

On 11 Feb 2001, Milan Zamazal wrote:
>> Are GNATS 3.x and 4.0 supposed to be incompatible? [...]
>> Or should it be possible to update the GNATS server and keep existing
>> clients?
> - Though it might be technically possible to retain most of the gnatsd 3
>   commands (I didn't check carefully), it would leave a lot of garbage
>   in the gnatsd command set instead of really simplifying it.

Well, this is a good point.

> - I don't consider a backward compatibility being a serious issue here,
>   because I suppose most installed interfaces are tight to their server
>   and are supposed to be upgraded together with the server.

Hmm, not necessarily. For example, I would have liked to use the current
CVS version of gnatsweb on gcc.gnu.org, first to do some testing by
myself, and then also in production use. This I could do easily, but
having the entire GNATS installation updated, would be quite more
involved.

(I hope the upgrade path from GNAT 3.x to 4.x will be simple and well
documented, so that one can easily migrated his databases? Then it'll
be less of a problem for most regular sites.)

Gerald
-- 
Gerald "Jerry" pfeifer@dbai.tuwien.ac.at http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/~pfeifer/

Re: Compatibility between GNATS 3.x and 4.x? gnatsweb?

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "GP" == Gerald Pfeifer <pfeifer@dbai.tuwien.ac.at> writes:
        
    GP> On 11 Feb 2001, Milan Zamazal wrote:

    >> - I don't consider a backward compatibility being a serious issue
    >> here, because I suppose most installed interfaces are tight to
    >> their server and are supposed to be upgraded together with the
    >> server.

    GP> Hmm, not necessarily. For example, I would have liked to use the
    GP> current CVS version of gnatsweb on gcc.gnu.org, first to do some
    GP> testing by myself, and then also in production use. This I could
    GP> do easily, but having the entire GNATS installation updated,
    GP> would be quite more involved.

If I understand you well, you mean that new Gnatsweb should still allow
work with GNATS 3?  This would be nice but it is solely a matter of
Gnatsweb.  If Gnatsweb is designed well enough, the backward
compatibility shouldn't be a big problem.  (As for my gnats2w hack,
there's no problem with retaining the backward compatibility with
GNATS 3, there is a problem with supporting the full flexibility of
GNATS 4 instead -- gnats2w wasn't designed with a big functional
extensions of the server in mind.)

    GP> (I hope the upgrade path from GNAT 3.x to 4.x will be simple and
    GP> well documented, so that one can easily migrated his databases?
    GP> Then it'll be less of a problem for most regular sites.)

Yes, moving databases should be easy -- actually I use a copy of GNATS
bug database from sources.redhat.com (running with GNATS 3 there) on my
machine with GNATS 4.  All I had to do was to add the `dbconfig' file
and to customize it a little.  Of course, I plan to document the upgrade
process appropriately.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

-- 
"Having GNU Emacs is like having a dragon's cave of treasures."
                                                Robert J. Chassell