Re: [tycho-user] Discovery URL from feature.xml not reflected in content

[Andreas Sewe <andreas.sewe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tobias oberlies wrote:
> Andreas Sewe wrote:
>> Well, what I don't get is why something that was part of the unit (being
>> declared in the unit's feature.xml [1]) got moved to the
>> repository-header level.
> 
> I think what is wrong here is that it is possible to specify repository URLs in features. I think this is a historic relict of the old update manager, and p2 tries to make the best of it copying the information to the repository level.

Agreed. Allowing the feature itself to control this kind of stuff seems
wrong. Alas, it is the only way I know of to specify discovery URLs.

Anyway, it seems like I just have to wait some more for this...

>> Is there any chance that this will be supported in future versions of
>> Tycho or do I fundamentally misunderstand what eclipse-repository does?
> 
> It is clear that Tycho needs to support some way to specify discovery URLs - but I don't think that this will be via the feature.xml format. Instead, there are some ideas in p2 to create a new repository descriptor format which supports this [1]. Tycho anyway will need a new format for other reasons [2], so if [1] doesn't take off, we could also add this feature as follow-up of [2].

I must admit that I don't like the idea of introducing yet another
descriptor format in general and the one in [1] in particular.

IMHO, Tycho should either consume formats that are already in existence
(MANIFEST.MF, build.properties, to some extend p2.inf) or simply place
the information in the pom.xml, e.g., as part of the
tycho-p2-repository-plugin's <configuration>.

As the Maven Archiver shows [3], one can convey quite complex
configuration this way. And piggy-backing onto a format already familiar
to Tycho users IMHO outweighs a slightly verbose XML syntax (when
compared to an all-new, specialized descriptor format). Also, the tool
support (code completion, tooltips) you get through m2e is probably
better than anything you will get for your new format in the near future.

But that's just my 2 cents.

Andreas

> [1] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=401960
> [2] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=403481
[3] <http://maven.apache.org/shared/maven-archiver/>

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