doc: more about pretest numbering.

* HACKING: mention change to numbered pretests.
* configure.ac: and hence am_beta_version_rx won't match any more.
Let's just call all pretests development snapshots.

diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
index 98ffb9155a15acc8fdcc722e6f71ff7f3568a2a3..6b6232ef298db7331d7eb5cdd85edf1e233e5514 100644 (file)
--- a/HACKING
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -504,10 +504,13 @@
 * Check NEWS; in particular, ensure that all the relevant differences
   with the last release are actually reported.
 
-* Update the version number in configure.ac.
-  (The idea is that every other alpha number will be a net release.
-  The repository will always have its own "odd" number so we can easily
-  distinguish net and repo versions.)
+* Update the version number in configure.ac.  Leading up to a release,
+  say 1.17, pretests should be numbered from 1.16.90. Even numbers
+  (1.16.90, 1.16.92, ...) should be the pretest releases; odd numbers
+  (1.16.91, 1.16.93, ...) should be only the development versions.
+  Leading up to a release 1.17.1, we would have 1.16.0.90, etc.
+  Before 1.17 (January 2024), we used suffixed letters for pretests,
+  as is traditional, but deficient sorting algorithms did not like that.
 
 * Run these commands, in this order (as mentioned, adjust -j as desired):
     make bootstrap

diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 57dd874737a9e12cbd67ce55146b3a64b9ac26c9..eb5383324b6baae64417bfabcf2b85568ad75b6e 100644 (file)
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -588,13 +588,17 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([pre-inst-env], [chmod +x pre-inst-env])
 AC_OUTPUT
 
 # Inform the user if this version of automake is a beta release or
-# a development snapshot.
-# According to HACKING, the version of a development snapshot should
-# end with an "odd" letter (a, c, ...), the version of a test release
-# should end with an "even" letter (b, d, ...).
-
+# a development snapshot. Except, as of 1.17 (January 2024), don't bother.
+# Just call all pretests development snapshots.
+#
 am_stable_version_rx='[[1-9]\.[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)?]'
-am_beta_version_rx="[$am_stable_version_rx[bdfhjlnprtvxz]]"
+
+# This won't match anything as of 1.17, since we switched to
+# .90-numbered test releases. But if we wanted to, according to HACKING,
+# the version of a development snapshot should end with an odd number
+# (91, 93, ...) and a beta release should end with an even number (90,
+# 92, ...).
+am_beta_version_rx="[$am_stable_version_rx[bdfhjlnprtvxz]]" # no match
 
 am_release_type=`AS_ECHO(["$PACKAGE_VERSION"]) | LC_ALL=C awk ["
   /^$am_stable_version_rx$/ { print \"stable\"; exit(0); }
@@ -605,10 +609,11 @@ am_release_type=`AS_ECHO(["$PACKAGE_VERSION"]) | LC_ALL=C awk ["
 test "$am_release_type" = stable || test "$silent" = yes || cat <<EOF
 
 WARNING: You are about to use a $am_release_type of automake.
-WARNING: It might easily suffer from new bugs or regressions.
+WARNING: It could well suffer from new bugs or regressions.
 WARNING: You are strongly advised not to use it in production code.
 
-Please report bugs, problems and feedback to <AC_PACKAGE_BUGREPORT>.
+Please report bugs, problems and feedback to <AC_PACKAGE_BUGREPORT>,
+since that is the whole point of a test release.
 EOF
 
 AS_EXIT([0])