VERSION from git describe ?

[jimc]

this patch gives me a legal version,

[jimc@frodo virtme-ng]$ vng -V
virtme-ng 1.17+v1.17-14-ga19857a

its arguably a bit noisy, but it could also be more deeply flawed
(whats it do when there is no repo, and could that even matter?)

so its an idea for now..

[jimc@frodo virtme-ng]$ git diff
diff --git a/virtme_ng/version.py b/virtme_ng/version.py
index fb930bc..d7a88a1 100644
--- a/virtme_ng/version.py
+++ b/virtme_ng/version.py
@@ -3,7 +3,10 @@

"""virtme-ng version"""

-VERSION = "1.17"
+import subprocess
+
+VERSION = "1.17+" + subprocess.check_output(

•    ['git', 'describe'], universal_newlines=True).strip()
  

if name == 'main':
print(VERSION)

[arighi]

I've been trying to figure out a reliable way to determine the version without manually updating virtme-ng/version.py every single time. I went to that route in the past (using git describe), but it makes the deb packaging a bit of a headache, because we don't have the git repo when the package is built... maybe we should add a condition, like if .git/ exists then try to figure out the version via git describe, otherwise fallback to an hard-coded version... but I'm not yet 100% convinced this is a good idea...

[jimc]

I figured there might be packaging issues, and Im a python beginner.
My 1st try had a setver(), called from main. I think it tripped on setting an immutable 2x,
without a proper if then else, so I'll probly try again later.

.git/ exists seems a decent test, but brittle when PWD is different.
(Im often in ./builds/something, where git describe will work)
OTOH git describe might work oddly in dir-nested repos

MAN_VER="1.17"
AUTO_VER=git describe # sorry perl-isms still come natural

.. then sort out the assignment to VERSION

[jimc]

hows this look ?
its untested - will try soon.
- Im a python beginner, so will make some beginner mistakes for a while

# -*- mode: python -*-
# Copyright 2023 Andrea Righi

"""virtme-ng version"""

import subprocess

def get_version_string():
    try:
        # Run the `git describe` command and strip the leading 'v'
        version_output = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'describe'], universal_newlines=True).strip()
        return version_output[1:]
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        # Git repository not found, return an empty string
        return ""

MAN_VERSION = "1.17"
GIT_VERSION = get_version_string()

# maintainer check for leading match on 2 versions
if GIT_VERSION.startswith(MAN_VERSION):
    version_string = GIT_VERSION[len(MAN_VERSION):].replace('-', '+')
    print("Using Git version:", version_string)
else:
    print("Git version mismatch:", GIT_VERSION)

VERSION = GIT_VERSION or MAN_VERSION

if __name__ == '__main__':
    print(VERSION)

[arighi]

Not bad at all! However, if git is not installed in the system (e.g., when building virtme-ng in an ubuntu ppa) your code would trigger a FileNotFoundError exception, unless we add git to the build-depends in the packaging info. And maybe in get_version_string() instead of returning an empty string if the git command fails you can return MAN_VERSION directly.

But even in this case MAN_VERSION needs to be updated and maintained, so I'd rather stick just with the manual version honestly...

Also I wouldn't add my name to the Copyright, since you wrote it feel free to add your name. :)

[jimc]

hi Andrea, have you thought any more about versioning ?

python versioning, ala PEP440, disallows direct use of git describe output.

heres the error Im seeing atm, I think with the version I sent previously.

[jimc@frodo virtme-ng.git]$ make install
BUILD_VIRTME_NG_INIT=1 pip3 install --verbose -r requirements.txt .
Using pip 23.3.2 from /usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip (python 3.12)
Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Processing /home/jimc/projects/virtme-ng.git
  Running command python setup.py egg_info
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<string>", line 2, in <module>
    File "<pip-setuptools-caller>", line 34, in <module>
    File "/home/jimc/projects/virtme-ng.git/setup.py", line 154, in <module>
      setup(
    File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 103, in setup
      return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 147, in setup
      _setup_distribution = dist = klass(attrs)
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^
    File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 314, in __init__
      self.metadata.version = self._normalize_version(self.metadata.version)
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 350, in _normalize_version
      normalized = str(Version(version))
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/setuptools/_vendor/packaging/version.py", line 198, in __init__
      raise InvalidVersion(f"Invalid version: '{version}'")
  setuptools.extern.packaging.version.InvalidVersion: Invalid version: '1.25-35-ga74e4d0'
  Using Git version: +35+ga74e4d0
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error
  

so that approach is out.

and git describe is prone to reading linux history when youre running vng there.

and google gemini tells me that PEP440 doesnt allow any extensions,
so me trying to replace + with - or # was futile

but setting a different accessory version isnt crazy.
esp if vng --version can display it as well as VERSION

is there a way to run git describe at pip install ?
and perhaps punt and just say -dirty when in-tree ?

[arighi]

Hey @jimc what do you think about #131 ?