Explicit versionsing of lix-music archive

[szpak]

Making a Lix package for Fedora, I've encounter one issues.

The music archive for Lix could be versioned. I realize that you might not plan to add extra file to it, but from the packager point of you an used file should be upstream immutable. On the other hand, I realize, that it is handy to have just one link to the latest version. Therefore, I propose to just add the extra link to lix-music-XX.zip (mentioned somewhere in the documentation for packagers) which will always point to the same version (the one valid as for 20230402) and lix-music.zip would internally just symlink to that file.
Once you modify something, then lix-music-YY.zip will be uploaded to the server, with a symlink lix-music.zip switched to the new file (the old one lix-music-XX.zip would stay as it untouched). WDYT?

[SimonN]

Hi! I'd prefer an extra git repository over having to keep multiple versions of the music zip file on my webspace. I can then tag the music repo, and github will create versioned zip files from the tags.

I can perfectly live with a link (that always provides the newest version) that merely points to a download page (e.g., the github tag page) and have that page automatically offer the newest versioned zip archive. That would be sufficient for Lix's main menu; it tells the player where to download the music. Or do you see another need for a symlink on the webserver?

I'll sleep over whether I'd like add such a new music repo as a subrepository of the main Lix repo.

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It's also possible to put the music files directly into the main Lix repo, but I'm wary of growing the Lix repo too fat over time.

There is already a difference between the tracks in lix-music.zip and the tracks in my own Lix binary releases: For Lix 0.10.6 from 2023-02-04, the binary releases changed music/minim-mobius/meadow-sunrise.ogg: Removed wrongly looped initial segment. Before, the song started, then restarted after 2 seconds.

[szpak]

Probably keeping the music files outside the main repo is a good idea. Having a separate one for music sounds good to me - as you noted, it makes it easier to manage changes and do the "releases".

Having it (additionally) "mounted" as a submodule in the main one also looks ok - people might skip it if needed, the binary releases also can be done independently.

Update. I originally proposed a symlink as the (probably) least intrusive to the current distribution model. The Git approach is a way better for the aforementioned reasons (of course, you still can link in your game domain "to keep the old link(s) correct").

[SimonN]

I've reuploaded the music archive, fixing the beginning of meadow-sunrise.ogg. I.e., I've done exactly what you warn against: Push a new version with the same download link as the previous version (which I overwrote).

If new music ever comes around or if there are bigger changes, I'll prioritize this issue (explicit versioning of the music).

[Mailaender]

I've done exactly what you warn against: Push a new version with the same download link as the previous version (which I overwrote).

Undo that and create a version 1.1.zip for that.

[Lucki]

lix-music-1.zip

[SimonN]

^ Lucki attached the 1.0 archive. This is the exact file that @Mailaender had previously pinned in Flatpak. It has a sha256 of 8ae2323995ac8792f720e80130220a0e85da32269e25e5b9add8c586c16ef392.

If it's such a vital file, I'd prefer not to host it on lixgame.com with packages relying on it. Hosting the music on lixgame.com was a hack in the first place. :-)

I'll figure something out for immutable hosting of the music. Most likely, I'll make a github repo (or Codeberg or Sourcehut, as appropriate for FOSS?) and add the 1.0 and 1.1 archives as binary releases.