[tbb-bugs] #25099 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Update nightly version number

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#25099: Update nightly version number
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 Reporter:  boklm                     |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  task                      |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                    |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                    |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  tbb-rbm                   |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:  #18867                    |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by mcs):

 Replying to [comment:3 boklm]:
 > Replying to [comment:1 mcs]:
 > > For the updater to work correctly, the version number needs to conform
 to Mozilla's standard format (and newer releases need to have a higher
 number). See: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
 US/docs/Mozilla/Toolkit_version_format
 >
 > Thanks for the link. If I understand it correctly, it seems a version
 number like `2018.01.31` would conform to this standard format. We could
 also include the alpha version number in addition to the date, like
 `8.0a1.2018.01.31`.

 I think that would work.

 > Replying to [comment:2 mcs]:
 > > Replying to [comment:1 mcs]:
 > > > I am not sure what Mozilla uses for nightly Firefox builds, but
 maybe we can do something similar.
 > >
 > > Apparently they use an alpha version number, e.g.,
 `appVersion="60.0a1"`  and rely on the fact that they change the buildID
 for each nightly build, e.g., `buildID="20180131100706"`.
 >
 > I think it would be possible for us to do it like this, but would
 require some changes in our tools:
 >
 > * change the mar file names to include the buildID number
 > * change the script we use to generate incremental mars to be able to do
 it from two builds that have the same version number but a different
 buildID
 > * change the script we use to generate XML update responses to handle
 URLs with a buildID
 >
 > I think updating the version number only would require less changes. So
 I'm wondering if there is some other reason that would still make us
 prefer doing it with the buildID like Mozilla.

 I don't know of any reason to favor one approach over another, except
 doing it like Mozilla does might make it less likely that things will
 break for us in the future. But that is only a theoretical concern, and if
 our nightly updates break it would not be the end of the world.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25099#comment:4>
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