Build number should be set/updated automatically in Bootstrap.ino sketch

[jingman]

Would be great to have this as part of the build script. Should we set all of the variables (sketch name and sketch revision) or just the build?

[matthijskooijman]

Huh? build.sh sets the revision and build number in version.h already, right? What build number are you talking about exactly?

[jingman]

I was thinking that I'd like to set one of the values in the version.h example sketch to reflect the latest build number. I want people to be able to flash their Scouts using the Arduino IDE, but still have HQ tell them about future updates. In order to do that, I need to know the build.

[matthijskooijman]

Right. The problem is that from the IDE, we can't tell the difference between using an exact, unmodified, Bootstrap version and a heavily customized version (we can't run any custom preprocessing commands from the IDE, like we do with build.sh).

The current approach is conservative - only use the build number when you're certain that a build is compiled from exactly that (unmodified) version. This is a good idea from a support perspective - if someone pastes his version info, you can see right away that they might have been messing with the code.

Setting an explicit version number, hardcoded in version.h when commiting a tag is tricky. For one, build numbers are now only tagged in firmware-pinoccio, but version.h would be in library-pinoccio. Also, even if we'd just add the version number in one commit (and remove it immediately in the next commit), there's still a fair chance that someone compiles a version but forgot to update some libraries, so the version number from library-pinoccio says his bootstrap is up-to-date, but the gainspan library might still be out-of-date, leading to hard-to-debug problems.

Still, if we'd just set SKETCH_BUILD to the build number and then leave SKETCH_REVISION to unknown, that could be sufficient indication of not running an "official" version (verified against the git tag).

We might also need to change SKETCH_NAME to "Bootstrap" in the default version.h then. I didn't do this initially, since people will be copying the Boostrap.ino for a custom sketch, but then not realize they need to change the name.

[jingman]

Still, if we'd just set SKETCH_BUILD to the build number and then leave SKETCH_REVISION to unknown, that could be sufficient indication of not running an "official" version (verified against the git tag).

I think this is perfect.

[jingman]

Also, great thoughts on the other difficult aspects of setting these values - lots of stuff I hadn't thought about.