seeking convention: project directory for project info

[7rans]

I'm querying the Ruby community for a general convention in project
directories. I develop Reap which is essentially a Rake clone (almost
fully Rake compatible interface) plus extensive project management
tool. As it has matured I've come to see that it would be best to have
a dedicated folder in which to store "meta information" for a project
-- things like project info, special admin scripts, etc. plus files we
normally store at the top level like VERSION, fit nicely in this
directory.

Currently, I'm using the name 'meta/'. But I've noticed some other
project using 'util/' for similar purposes. I've also toyed with using
'proj/' but didn't end up liking it so much. At this point I need to go
ahead and commit to some name.

Perhaps there can be a general concensus for a community convention for
what to label such a directory?

Thanks,
T.

 

[Matt Todd]

I would think that you could actually separate that data into
appropriate directories. I don't think special admin scripts falls
into the meta category, and VERSION may be better off in the root...
or something like state/ or someting. Also, there's .meta/ if you're
wanting to keep it quiet for the most part.

Does this make any sense? Or have I misunderstood your design and structure?

M.T.

 

[7rans]

I would think that you could actually separate that data into
appropriate directories. I don't think special admin scripts falls
into the meta category, and VERSION may be better off in the root...
or something like state/ or someting. Also, there's .meta/ if you're
wanting to keep it quiet for the most part.

It can become rather clutterd if everything has it's own particular
place which is why this single "project metadata and utilities" dir
really becomes useful. By admin I mean project admin. Eg. a script that
updates RAA for instance (albiet more often these are in a
Rakefile/Reapfile, but not always.) Here's a like of some conceviable
files:

MANIFEST
VERSION
ChangeLog/CHANGES
doap.xml
ProjectInfo (Reap uses this)
Reapfile (ditto)
Rakefile (if Rake supported it)
InstalledFiles (if setup.rb supported it)
.config (if setup.rb supported it)

I'm sure there are more, and of course there are others that could be
very project specific.

FYI, Reap still supports the files it uses even if they are in the root
and not in "meta/" though.

Does this make any sense? Or have I misunderstood your design and structure?

Yes and no. Perhaps you could be more specific. What directories do you
think need to be separate?

Thanks,
T.

 

[Matt Todd]

I think any kind of script would belong in a ./script/ folder, and if
need be, have a ./script/admin/ folder for those special admin
scripts. And most of those other bits can be hidden in a ./.meta/
folder if you like, particularly MANIFEST and VERSION and doap.xml
(maybe?).

I'd have to know a bit more about the project to really give you some
more suggestions. I think I'll go check it out and give you some more
suggestions once I'm a bit more familiar with it.

M.T.