18508, "arezaii", "[mason] Migrate mason to its own repository", "2021-10-01T20:44:27Z"
Summary
Mason is currently a folder inside the Chapel repository. This makes it difficult to release updates to mason independently of the Chapel language. Other package managers/build tools are often included with their respective language, but have their own repository (e.g. rust+cargo).
I have seen mention of an independent mason repository in older issues, (see mason bash completion script by ankingcodes · Pull Request #16035 · chapel-lang/chapel · GitHub, and Mason Improvements · Issue #7106 · chapel-lang/chapel · GitHub), so I know this has at least been mentioned before, but I don't see much discussion about it.
This issue is to track the discussion of what it would take to move mason and identify potential problems with the end result.
Vision
- create a mason repository, maybe chapel-lang/mason
- mason becomes a git submodule of Chapel
- mason specific issues migrated to new mason repo
- new mason issues created on mason repo
Benefits
- Faster bugfixes/enhancements to mason
- Separate mason issues from Chapel issues
Issues
- adds complexity to deal with submodule
- requires updates to makefiles
- requires updates to Chapel CI and test configurations
- mason relies on Chapel's test framework
- others? (please comment)