1363804 - make tc builds generate firefox.{tar.bz2,zip} rather than target.{tar.bz2,zip} for user-friendliness

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox Build System :: Task Configuration, task)

Description

[Nathan Froyd [:froydnj]]

Earlier today, I asked somebody to do something that required downloading a build from try to examine the packaged contents.  They responded that they had looked for a download link, but couldn't find anything in the artifact list.  That seemed kind of odd, so I took a look at their try push.  I didn't see anything obvious, either, but eventually guessed that "target.tar.bz2" must be the thing that they were probably looking for.  And indeed it was.

I realize that for the release pipeline, the exact package name probably doesn't matter; presumably there's taskcluster metadata associated with it and somesuch.  But for downloading builds off of try, something that contributors do with decent frequency and often ask bug reporters or commenters to do so those folks can test potential fixes, it's yet another hurdle to jump across, particular if the contributor asks but doesn't realize (or remember) that our infrastructure has this odd naming scheme, so there has to be a round trip or more of sorting things out.

My recollection is that we used to generate firefox-FOO.tar.bz2.  I'm ambivalent about the version number in the context, but firefox.tar.bz2 is way better than target.tar.bz2.  Can we change target.tar.bz2 to something more evocative please?

Comment 1

[Dustin J. Mitchell [:dustin] (he/him)]

I wouldn't mind changing "target' to "firefox".  I think that should be a fairly straightforward change, and could be tested in try.  I'm not sure what the implications are for the release automation, but a r? could probably suss that out.

Comment 2

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

We originally did that work just to make the package filenames predictable because we had to hardcode them in the taskgraph, and having version numbers and whatnot in there made life harder. We could easily swap "target" for "firefox" and it ought to be fine, although we might need some fiddling to deal with fennec as well.

Longer-term we'd like to move forward with the artifact manifest that RelEng's intern lguo implemented this summer, to have a single source of truth for artifact filenames that we could plumb through the whole taskgraph. bug 1492494 covers finding a place to integrate that.

Comment 3

[Tom Prince [:tomprince]]

I'll also mention that thunderbird will want support here, though the artifact manifest work will support that.

Comment 4

[Marco Castelluccio [:marco]]

Andrew, I'd say this isn't worth doing at this point, do you agree? Can we close this as WONTFIX?

Comment 5

[Andrew Halberstadt [:ahal]]

Wfm! Seems like lots of risk for little benefit. Was probably a lot more viable 6 years ago