[jbosstools-dev] Who uses .target file?

[Rob Cernich]

[snip]

> without it the dependencies/target platforms are not resolved
> deterministically.
> 
> And just to be clear what I mean with deterministic is that if our TP
> says org.x.z.y-1.2.3
> and the update site only have org.x.z.y-1.2.4 the build *must* fail.
> 
> It doesn't if the other p2 metadata features/plugin's allows 1.2.4 in
> its set.

Let's keep in mind that the plugin/feature being built determines the versions of its dependencies (not sure how fuzzy this gets when specifying package dependencies), so it shouldn't matter what the TP says as it is _not_ the definitive source.  The build should fail if the plugin requires v1.2.3 and only 1.2.4 is available.

I'd also question why ..x release would break a build.  The minor version should be updated if the API changes.  Of course, we sometimes use non-public API or unreleased API, so these things can happen.  When they do, the plugin with the dependency needs to be updated to require 1.2.3 as the maximum supported version.

Remember, the user can be installing these into any platform that supports the requirements of the plugins/features being installed.

Target platform is a guideline, not a rule (with the exception for package dependencies above, but, if the plugin is version dependent, it should be specifying a version dependency somewhere).

Just my opinion.

[snip]