ocaml
Add a release date
To show in opam info if available. Since many of the packages use opam-publish or GitHub for releasing it makes sense also to add the release date.
FYIK, there is no intend to add release date field in the opam file (ping @AltGr).
The process can't be done automatically via opam-publish, as release date in the opam file must be the same in opam-repo and in the release archive. Besides, there is some delay between opening the pull request and having it merged in the repo, and having the package available on opam.ocaml.org.
it can be inferred by querying the git repo (if the repo is a git repo), looking at date of the last modification, but opam file modification can occurs without a new release.
On all case, to have it integrated consistently, it should be done by the package maintainer.
Yes, maybe just allowing it to be set by maintainer is enough. Nevertheless, this information is very useful.
Note that the webpages show the release date: see e.g. http://opam.ocaml.org/packages/abella/ The information is extracted from the git repository.
It helps to know when software was released, especially if you meet a bug during the installation or so.
It helps to know when software was released,
If you really care about that you can read the release notes (e.g. via odig changes PKG).
especially if you meet a bug during the installation or so.
I don't see how knowing when the software was released upstream helps "if you meet a bug during the installation or so".
Maybe you are saying you want to know when the package metadata was last updated in the repository (which has nothing to do with the upstream release date and is what @AltGr pointed you to) ?
release date can be reworded to "when this package version first appeared in opam repo" and when searching show this date for the latest version usecase - help to quickly filter out older libraries :
$ opam search websocket
# Packages matching: match(*websocket*)
# Name # Installed # Synopsis
[.. filtered out for brevity, there are 20+ results ..]
httpun-ws 0.2.0 Websocket implementation for httpun
websocket 2.17 Websocket library
websocketaf -- Websocket implementation for use with http/af
websocketml -- A simple websocket library for OCaml with no dependency
ws -- Generic websocket implementation for OCaml
3 of these didn't have a release in the past 5 years seeing this quickly without having to go to the repo and look at the commits history for each would help to narrow down which one to try first
While debugging something else i encountered opam.ocaml.org/json/stats.json which i didn't know existed. I believe this might help people looking for this type of information
