On Wed, Aug 01, 2012 at 01:00:32PM +0100, Frank Shearar wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> How important is the changes file, really? I don't mean in terms of
> recovering from crashes, because I use my changes file all the time.
> 
> I mean, if a changes file is not present, does everything still work?
> I ask, because SmalltalkImage >> #logChange: specifically protects
> against a missing changes file (in the sense that it does nothing if
> (Sources at: 2) == nil). However, if you start up an image with no
> changes file, there's a big fat modal dialog warning about the missing
> file, but clicking through results in what looks - at first glance at
> least - like a normally functioning image.
> 
> If a changes file is _desirable_ but not _necessary_, could we remove
> the dialog (or do something different for -headless images, like
> dumping a warning to stderr)? Or simply start a new changes file if
> one's missing?
> 
> The concrete problem I'm trying to work around is with the CI test
> script. Running the test means modifying the changes file and Jenkins
> really does not like that. If the changes file were not necessary I
> could simply not keep it under version control.
> 
> Sometimes, I don't _care_ about recovering from a crash.

You can symlink the changes file to /dev/null and all of the changes
will go into the bit bucket:

  $ rm myImage.changes
  $ ln -s /dev/null myImage.changes
  $ squeak myImage

Dave