[fpc-devel] [RFC] Modernising the FPC Release Process -- Proposal for Review

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Fri, 17 Apr 2026, Martin Frb via fpc-devel wrote:

> On 17/04/2026 16:30, Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-devel wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Fri, 17 Apr 2026, Martin Frb via fpc-devel wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>> But in the bulk of cases, it's just a couple of clicks and you're done.
>>>
>>> Well, see my other mail...
>>
>>
>> We can of course all stick desperately to the old ways. I myself will 
>> have to change my ways, I rarely make branches today.
>
> My mail wasn't really about "not wanting to use branches" => I do that a 
> lot, at least locally.

In your case its your reluctance to use the web:

Because the tooling is in the web.

>
> If I was affected (if I were working on fpc), then I would have to say:
> - I prefer a largely linear commit history. My personal preference (but 
> open wide to adaption) is to have
>    3rd party in a branch
>    team-commits mainly linear, but down to every team members preference.
>   => in either case, as long as branches are rebased before merging 
> (none-FF merges) then that is linear enough.

Rebase is the rule in FPC. It's independent of the discussion.

>
> I do make a difference between
> - git (and all that git allows us to do)
> - GitLab
> The latter is less important to me. It's a means to enable git.

That is where we have different visions.

If I just wanted git, I would not need gitlab. 
gitea (or whatever it is called today) does the job.

There were 2 reasons for switching to gitlab SaaS:
- No maintenance
- The tooling we get.

If you don't want to use the tooling of gitlab, there is no point in
discussing, as that is a given for me: setting up some system beside 
gitlab which does what gitlab does, is IMO utterly pointless if you're 
already using gitlab.

However, if you insist on using a local tool (command-line or not): no problem. 
gitlab cli (glab) exists already. You can use that to handle merge requests
without ever touching the web interface.

Gitlab is API first, so If this is your wish, I'll even write a lazarus UI 
tool or FPC command-line tool to create the MR, merge it, all in one go.

If that makes your (and other people's) life easier or more comfortable in a MR-based
workflow, I am prepared to do the work.

It will not take me an hour to create it, even without AI.

The human side (decisions) remains the same whatever the tooling, 
but can we get at least the tooling discussion out of the way: 
i.e. to use MRs for easier tracking.

Michael.