Use of tags in West manifest

[hoyes]

Over at the meta-zephyr Yocto layer we have a script which we use to automatically generate Bitbake configuration for a specific Zephyr release (using West as a library).

Yocto/OE advises setting the SRCREV for each module to a full SHA, not a tag, the idea being that tags can change but SHAs are immutable.

I notice that a tag was recently accepted into the West manifest for zcbor - I wondered if someone could clarify Zephyr policy on this, i.e.:

• Should I raise a PR here to change the tag to a SHA, or
• Update our meta-zephyr script to resolve tags to SHAs where necessary.

Thanks in advance for your assistance,

Peter

[yashi]

I'm not a maintainer of Zephyr nor Yocto project but using either a tag or a hash value in a West manifest doesn't mean anything to Yocto project. Technically a tag in Git can change but that's highly discouraged, especially for public tags.

Should I raise a PR here to change the tag to a SHA

Please don't. We are free to choose whatever suites us. I mean you can send a PR, but I don't see any benefit for Zephyr project. Moreover, what if a Zephyr module is from outside of Zephyr project and a tag is used in a West manifest? We, as in Zephyr project, can't ensure the tag is always resolve to exact hash value.

Update our meta-zephyr script to resolve tags to SHAs where necessary.

If this means make your scripts to resolve a tag automatically, then, it's up to you. In fact, as you already know, BitBake allows you to use a tag. It just need to access network to resolve it, I suppose. And a part of Yocto users don't like network access while building it. (I can understand the requirement)

Or, if this means you personally run git rev-parse <tag> and paste the hash value in your layer, that's fine as well. I know I can't promiss it or my word doesn't mean anything, but I don't think Zephyr project will change the tags we already have in public.

All in all, if you really don't want to use tags, have a local west manifest without tags?

My two cents.