[eclipselink-dev] Expanding 'standards' for build files.

[Eric Gwin <eric.gwin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I'm sending this out as a notification/proposal of some additional 
standard conventions I plan on adding to our build files after the branch.
    - properties ending in .jar define jarfile names only (no path)
    - properties ending in .lib are fully qualified jars (path and 
filename)
    - properties ending in .dir are directory paths
    - properties ending in .path are path refid names (classpath fragments)
    - targets beginning with test- are reserved for high level test 
targets,
      and are used in test results parsing
    - targets typically use the form <action>-<object>-<type> (ie. 
package-bundle-zip)

Some are clarifications of standards already in place, but not well 
publicized. However, with regard to .jar/.lib and .dir/.path there is no 
current standard, and properties are named and used in a fairly random 
mostly interchangeable way. There are many reasons this is becoming an 
issue now, but here are the biggest:
    - bugs requesting the use of minimal classpaths necessitate the 
need to individually
      define libraries. However, the build has multiple entry points so 
paths to those
      libraries are relative to the entry point. So the need to 
separate path from jar name.
    - adding individual libraries (rather than eclipselink.core.depend 
or eclipslink.oracle.depend
       which list them all) also creates a need to separately define 
directories and classpath subsets.

For the most part I've tried to keep the usage most prevalent for each 
postfix
-.lib was mostly used to define full paths to jars, while .jar mostly 
defined jar names. However,
  there are also a few non-conformant properties (eclipselink.jar.name 
and .jarfile)
-.dir really hasn't changed at all, but there were a few uses where it 
was a defining a pathref
-.path is pretty much new old pathrefs were either .dir or .classpath

While I needed to implement these changes for the oracle modules for 
critical fixes in 2.0.0, I plan on implementing these changes across the 
board  after the branch and discussion has occurred.

Does anyone object to these standards, or have preferences other than 
what I plan to implement? I can see .jarfile being used as the standard 
postfix because the property can't easily be confused with a static 
usage of a jar, but it wasn't routinely used.

Comments? (If I hear nothing from you I will assume it is assent, and 
continue as outlined after the branch is complete.)

-Eric