How heavy are labels? (CI question)

[andrew00]

All,

How heavy are labels?

We have a problem where often, we forget to apply labels at the time of our product release (web-based application). This puts us in the uncomfortable situation where a need for an immediate bug fix comes up, and we can't address it because we don't have a label to branch off of - so we've got to go into rapid QA mode to quality-assure untested development code, just to fix a bug.

To remove the possibility for developer error, I've configured FinalBuilder to automatically apply a label based on a self-incrementing revision number. This results in a label for EVERY GOOD BUILD. This is about 5-10 labels a day.

My question is - how big are the labels? Will this cause my database size to spiral out of control, or is it no big deal? And if it ISN'T a good idea, what are best practices for dealing with this type of situation?

Thanks,
Andrew

[jclausius]

Labels will claim no additional database/disk space for the actual file contents itself. It will however need to store a small bit of info for a picture of what the label's tree structure looks like, which results in an average of 32-128 bytes per file or folder in the label, plus the storage for keys and indices.

The only caveat with an exorbitant label count, sometimes the "Show Labels" dialog takes a bit more time to pull up *ALL* labels assigned to any given object.

HTH

[ian_sg]

My two cents:

We use CruiseControl.NET internally and label every good build, which is typically several per day. Jeff already mentioned the biggest drawback.

Be aware, however, that you can create a branch from any point in history, whether there's a label or not. Using the stand-alone client, do Show History on a folder, select "View folder history by version" in the history options dialog. From here, you can pick a version of the folder to branch from.

[andrew00]

Interesting... if you can branch from any point in history, why use labels?

Also - 32 bytes per file - if we have 5,000 files, that's essentially 150KB per label? That is pretty hefty, no?

Andrew

[GregM]

Interesting... if you can branch from any point in history, why use labels?

We use labels because we want to indicate which points in history have builds, and because it's easier to get the build number by reading the label than by anything else.

[andrew00]

OK - makes sense.

Do you wipe labels at some point? Or do you have hundreds of labels going back for months?

[GregM]

Yes. We have wiped old labels in the past to make the label list shorter, but we do have a lot of old labels too.

[imeshev]

Andrew,

You might want to look at our Parabuild. It allows Vault users reproducing arbitrary past builds without labeling.

Regards,

Slava Imeshev