Robust way to keep records of software releases?

Question

We release a number of small plug-ins that go along with our software. Each plug-in allows our software to talk to a single manufactuer's hardware. I would like to devise a system for keeping track of plug-in releases.

Example info that should be stored:

• Hardware manufacturer name
• 32-bit? 64-bit? both?
• What modes of operation does the hardware support?
• What versions of the manufacturer's driver have been tested with the plugin?

Desirable properties of the system:

• Able to synchronize with version control software
• Stores data in human-readable text file (also good for differ tool)
• Free visual, spreadsheet-like editor available
• Able to do simple analysis like "What is the oldest plug-in?"

I've got to imagine that someone else has tackled this problem already. Right now my best guess is XML/JSON with a visual editor, but I have been disappointed in the editors I've tried so far. I'd like to get input from some more experienced developers. Thanks!

Answer 1

Continuous integration is probably something you'd find useful for this task.

I'd recommend you have a look at Hudson (or Jenkins¹).

Essentially it's a build robot, and you can arbitrarily add scripts and activities to be run as part of the build process. For example, monitor the SCM repository for changes and trigger a build, run unit tests, log information about the build, etc. etc.

If you send log entries to a database (e.g. SQlite) you'll be able to do any queries you like.

^{1. the Hudson/Jenkins split.}

Answer 2

If you were working with Debian packages, you could just do ls/find on your pool directory.