Recommended Pharo image updating and Metacello commit policy

Hi Peter,

I and I guess most people, keep their working image for days to weeks. After all, it is one of the main strengths to have a persistent environment containing all you customisations, all code you loaded, your workspaces, in essence, your world.

That being said, you should keep all your important code in an MC repository (at least in the package-cache, but better in a real repository, maybe a private one). That way you know your code will survive an image crash.

When and if you want to upgrade, you can now do so. You have to decide if the trouble is worth it. I always keep the old images, just in case.

HTH,

Sven

PS: You can save workspaces to files, or use ScriptManager for multiple ones. There also exists various solutions to move preferences and/or settings around, YMMV.

On 24 Jul 2014, at 14:58, Peter Uhnák <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Having ~month old pharo image I was wondering what is the recommended way of updating it. Do I just delete everything and download a fresh one every so often (daily?), do I load new changes through Monticello? Does that upgrade the VM though?
> If the former what about local code I wrote but I don't want to loose or haven't completely finished? Is it possible to export workspace content and load it into fresh image?
> Do I just create local repository and commit there and once I am satisfied with the results I push them up (to STHub/wherever)? Or should I always push to remote repo even if the commits break the package (I would assume that should be semi-guarded by creating ConfigurationOfMyProject)? I am used to Git and I still can't wrap my head around this Monticello thing. :(
>
> Thanks,
> Peter

Sven Van Caekenberghe wrote:

Hi Peter,

I and I guess most people, keep their working image for days to weeks. After all, it is one of the main strengths to have a persistent environment containing all you customisations, all code you loaded, your workspaces, in essence, your world.

That being said, you should keep all your important code in an MC repository (at least in the package-cache, but better in a real repository, maybe a private one). That way you know your code will survive an image crash.
  

Peter,
You may want to use a local "Global Package Cache" as described here...
http://marianopeck.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/pharo-tips-and-tricks/
which you can use with StartupLoader as described here...
http://marianopeck.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/startuploader-running-startup-scripts-in-pharo/
cheers -ben

When and if you want to upgrade, you can now do so. You have to decide if the trouble is worth it. I always keep the old images, just in case.

HTH,

Sven

PS: You can save workspaces to files, or use ScriptManager for multiple ones. There also exists various solutions to move preferences and/or settings around, YMMV.

On 24 Jul 2014, at 14:58, Peter Uhnák [hidden email] wrote:

  

Having ~month old pharo image I was wondering what is the recommended way of updating it. Do I just delete everything and download a fresh one every so often (daily?), do I load new changes through Monticello? Does that upgrade the VM though?
If the former what about local code I wrote but I don't want to loose or haven't completely finished? Is it possible to export workspace content and load it into fresh image?
Do I just create local repository and commit there and once I am satisfied with the results I push them up (to STHub/wherever)? Or should I always push to remote repo even if the commits break the package (I would assume that should be semi-guarded by creating ConfigurationOfMyProject)? I am used to Git and I still can't wrap my head around this Monticello thing. :(

Thanks,
Peter
    

Am 24.07.2014 um 23:43 schrieb Stephan Eggermont <[hidden email]>:

> If you use a shared package cache, you should be aware of two potential issues:
> - directories with a large number of files can get slow;

I don't think that this is an issue with todays filesystems. If you want to cleanup a package-cache you could use something like this

----
$ cat bin/clean-package-cache
#!/bin/sh

find /opt/mc/package-cache/ -atime +180d -exec mv {} ~/.Trash \;
——

It moves all files that have not been accessed for half a year into the trash folder (I'm a Mac user). You can have this run automatically if add a file

----
$ cat Library/LaunchAgents/org.selfish.cleanPackageCache.plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.selfish.cleanPackageCache</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/norbert/bin/clean-package-cache</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>86400</integer>
</dict>
</plist>
——

> - Metacello configurations might load different versions of packages than you'd expect

Indeed

Norbert