[fpc-devel] 134 open merge requests - is that normal?

[Wayne Sherman]

On Fri, Apr 3, 2026 at 11:27 AM Florian Klämpfl via fpc-devel
<fpc-devel at lists.freepascal.org> wrote:
> Am 03.04.2026 um 19:56 schrieb Graeme Geldenhuys via fpc-devel <fpc-devel at lists.freepascal.org>:
> > I must say, I was also very surprised after I returned to see no FPC releases in five years—not even a fixes release!
>
> Multiple reasons:
> - it’s a boring job
> - fpc releases require an awful amount of handwork like updating version numbers in multiple files like readmes, whatsnew, utils etc.
> - tracking progress is documented in the wiki, another pain
> - lack of time

The infrastructure for automating has improved immensely with the move
to a git workflow and gitlab hosting.  But it needs more work to be a
fully automated CI/CD pipeline.  Any manual work still being done
should be evaluated, simplified, automated or eliminated.  A properly
implemented CI/CD should be able to automatically generate a full
release.

If you use LLMs try this query:
"The Free Pascal project (FPC at https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org and
https://www.freepascal.org/) is having problems preparing and creating
new release versions due to all the manual work involved. What
practical steps are needed to fully automate the CI / CD and with the
goal of completely automated release builds?"
and
How do these techniques apply to the goal of automating builds and
releases?:  "defined as code", "cloud native", GitOps, ContainerOps