FGDATA NEXT now functional for upcoming FG 3.4.1! [PS NOTE: FG dev cores will be releasing the 3.4.1 version soon, for which this FGDATA version applies. It had not been released yet. Thanks to R. Palmer for pointing that out ]
Thanks to the work by James Turner over the weekend, FGDATA next now contains a released tag for FG 3.4.1
This is outstanding news!
Now, we also have available the released tag for FGDATA next with submodules, allowing the use of this git repository to checkout the aircraft on the historical release, and thus bring the FGDATA next with submodules to any user of flightgear on the last release (3.4.1) or, as we had been using it, on the development branch (3.5)
Why is this important?As some already know, gitorious currently host FGDATA for the current version 3.4, but gitorious is leaving the market of repository hosts. with FGDATA host in gitorious (a monolithic 28GB repo), one could clone fgdata with all the aircraft that belonged to the official FG distribution.
A new host had been stablished (sourceforge), and FGDATA has been separated of its longly contained Aircraft in the
Aircraft directory.
Current clones of FGDATA (next) from sourceforge will provide a "aircraft-less" directory for FG root; while the aircraft are being hosted and developed in an independent subversion repository.
Starting today, users of FG3.4 can take advantage of the work hosted in FGMEMBERs, and the FGDATA next with submodules to obtain a complete and modular FGDATA with all aircraft existent in FGDATA on the release date (JAN17-2015), including those exclusively existing in the SVN repository at that date.
Having the ability of restoring a complete and inclusive FGDATA is the largest advantage that this new tagged release provides to FG users on the current released version (3.4.1)
http://sourceforge.net/p/fgdata/submodu ... next/tree/What does "released-tag" means?A released tag is a frozen state of previous development, usually on an "stable" status.
Non-developers usually experience and enjoy the stability of tagged releases, while developers surf the waves of the development branches.
A tagged release will not usually receive updates or new changes, increasing the stability of the features, and users tipically wait for the following release to fast-forward all exciting new features produced during those development waves --without suffering the consequences of the bleeding edge.
All FG aircrafts hosted in FGMEMBERS and belonging to this release had also been tagged on the last commit before Jan 17 2015, as FG3.4; These aircraft are the stable releases of the FG aircraft corresponding to the FG release 3.4.1, and expected to be fully functional with the release.
FGDATA next with submodules, release/3.4.0, effectively obtains any initialized submodule on the status pointed by the FG3.4 release, bringing the stability back to the end user Example:
https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/f16 => Development branch FG3.5. Some features are not functional for FG3.4.1
https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/f16/releases => FG3.4 released. Functional on the last stable release!
I am an end-user with FG 3.4.1 installed. How can I use FGDATA next with submodules to recover the aircrafts?
Once you installed FG 3.4.1; you had obtained a copy of fgdata that only contains 2 aircraft (ufo and c172p), and some generic required folders.
Your software points to that directory with the flag --fg-root (which can be set in any launcher or the command line).
With the use of any git software, you can obtain FGDATA next with submodules release/3.4.0, and replace (redirectioning your software) to the newly obtained FGDATA
The important point here is that you MUST clone the tagged release, instead of the repository itself!
This is done with the "--single-branch" switch of the git clone command.
And specifying the branch in respect, with --branch <branchname> switch.
Cloning the released tag: For users of FG3.4.1 to obtain FGDATA next with submodules 3.4 ReleaseIn the command line (of git) the following command does the job (Note this command is just a modification of git clone to specify the particular target)
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git clone http://git.code.sf.net/p/fgdata/submodules --branch release/3.4.0-submodules --single-branch
Once the clone is complete you had obtained a directory (fgdata) that works for FG 3.4.1
It contains all aircrafts in the FG3.4 release as submodules, and thus they are not downloaded to your repository yet!
Obtaining an Aircraft
To obtain an aircraft, apply the technique described above for intializing and updating any submodule,
example
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cd fgdata #enter the repository
git submodule init Aircraft/Citation #initialize a submodule
git submodule update #update the submodules initialized
This effectively installs the Citation Bravo!
Note that after the release of 3.4, works by Chris Blues and Ludovic Brenta are occurred to further develop this aircraft into FG 3.6.
But the steps above brings the Aircraft exactly as its status on FG 3.4, therefore no breakage or lack of stability occursIs it possible to test newer features with the stable release?
It is posible to test how does the aircraft works with the stable release. But no guarantee can be offered about compatibility!
In any case, try-it-out
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cd Aircraft/Citation #enter the aircraft directory
git checkout master #test the master branch of this aircraft
git pull # get the latest progress on the master branch
That 's it. The master branch immediately brings you to the latest advances in the Citation. Launch Flightgear and hopefully the work is not terribly incompatible with FG 3.4.1
Oh! oh! This plane new advances do not work for FG 3.4.1
Well. When the S%%T hits the prop:
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cd fdgata ##enter the root of the repo again. You may require going down levels!
git submodule update ##Update the repo, means, bring it back to the stable release!
I want to uninstall an aircraft?
One other of the advantages of the submodule repository is that it allows the "deinitializing" or uninstallation of any aircraft obtained. Reducing your local hard-drive burden, and keeping your repo in a diet (only the aircrafts you care about)
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cd fgdata
git submodule deinit Aircraft/Citation
This step will de-initialize the Citation, meaning effectively reducing the repository and removing all code of this aircraft. Only the directory remains, but is an empty directory that serves the purpose of a pointer when you want to re-install
Can I get all aircraft
Yes. All
FG3.4 aircraft.
Many additional aircraft had been added to FGDATA, that never reached Official Status, for x or y reason. But this additions occurred on the development branch FG 3.5, so they won't be available as an stable release until FG 3.6
But for many (481) aircrafts, this is luckily not the case. So you can get all FG 3.4 stable aircraft in a few commands (after you cloned the tagged release,as indicated above)
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git submodule init # init without indicating a submodule, effectively means "all submodules"
git submodule update #this will take a while. It is "several-coffees" time
When these commands finish, your new FG 3.4.1 FG installation, now will not only be blazing new, but also stable and contain all of the Aircrafts, FG is well known for.
A last wordRemember a released tag is an stable state of development. the typical command
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git pull
Will have no effect, and basically should reply consistently "Already up to date"
Meaning, nothing changed in the released tag.
Have fun, and enjoy this wonderful software, now, again, with all the aircraft we grew to love
Best,
IH-COL
PS:
For those wondering. The FGADDON subversion repository only holds bleeding edge aircraft, and cannot be used with stable releases.
If we gave everybody in the World free software today, but we failed to teach them about the four freedoms, five years from now, would they still have it? Probably not, because if they don’t recognise their freedoms, they’ll let their freedoms fall