Re: m4_version_compare and new version numbering

[Jim Meyering]

Benoit SIGOURE <address@hidden> wrote:
...
>> An alternative is to change the format of the version string, like
>> git does.  s/-/./g.  They also prepend an alpha ('g') to the SHA1
>> part.
>
> I like this alternative better.

I like it from the perspective that it makes version-comparing tools
work better, but don't like the appearance as much, because with all
'.' separators, it's harder for people to distinguish visually which part
is the "real" version string, and which part is the ".#changesets.SHA1"
suffix.

Besides, the last part isn't even a real number,
at least not for version-comparison purposes.

Compare:

  $ cat --version|head -1              cat (GNU coreutils) 6.9-375-3e3f8
  $ cat --version|sed s/-/./|head -1   cat (GNU coreutils) 6.9.375-3e3f8
  $ cat --version|sed s/-/./g|head -1  cat (GNU coreutils) 6.9.375.3e3f8

I'm inclined to switch coreutils to use the all-'.' version.
Any preference/arguments for leaving the final '-' ?

Anyone know why git adds the 'g' prefix to the SHA1 in git-describe?
If there's a good reason, maybe git-version-gen should not remove it,
after all.