View source for Completed: Proposal sha.txt

{{Proposal_Header| This proposal page is about conditionally showing more build information for QA in the build info window.  Specifically it is to show what source revision the build was made from }}

== Problem ==

Gale has suggested that it would be really valuable to QA to have revision numbers actually in the builds and shown as part of the build info.  That way even builds made on the same day from different source can be distinguished.  It makes it easy to find what code from SVN was compiled to make that build, what changes are believed to be in, and what changes are not believed to be in.  That is all vital information for QA.

Most end users don't care about revision number, so it could be argued that an actual release should not display the revision number.   As we transition to Git, and with revision number like 26daea02e40796982c07b5b3f9f3cb752d54da69  it becomes even less likely that we might want to show that 'revision number' to most users.  And there could also be extra work, if we build audacity RC2 and show say 'Audacity RC2' in the build info window, and now want to release it as an actual release, maybe we need to build again code that has been through test?  Making it no longer tested?  Oops.

== Proposed Feature ==

A script run at build time ensures a line with a 7 digit short SHA linking to the commit log is present in the build info window.

We don't worry about users being put off by a 7 digit SHA, it's in the build info window after all, and the full sha is available.  The flexibility to change the string after build e.g. from RC2 to 'Actual Release' without affecting the exe is not needed.

== Implementation ==

The script contains the following line:

 git show -s --format="wxT(\"<a href=\\\"https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/%H\\\">%h</a> of %cd\")" > ./src/RevisionIdent.h

This overwrites an existing default version of the file, which says "No revision identifier was provided", with this line:

 wxT("<a href=\"https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/fe8d3535d8feb212f04bc3750a0aed77ea72f1c0\">fe8d353</a> of Thu Apr 9 10:59:42 2015 +0100\")

This in turn in the HTML display becomes:

 Commit Id:        fe8d353 of Thu Apr 9 10:59:42 2015 +0100

Where fe8d353 is hyperlinked to the commit.

== Developer Backing ==
* James Crook