Pdf.js: Document that pdfjs-dist is a "nightly" build

[Rob--W]

https://github.com/mozilla/pdfjs-dist and https://www.npmjs.com/package/pdfjs-dist does not clearly show that the release is a continuous build. The documentation, sourced from https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/blob/a7c35025fed8beb8f9b93688fff40497c7ad2de0/external/dist/README.md should probably be changed to make this more clear. And https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/getting_started/ does not clearly state that pdfjs-dist is not the stable release build.

Here is an example of confusion that was caused by this: https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/pull/9385#issuecomment-363030784

[brendandahl]

Or we could send npm releases instead.

[wojtekmaj]

npm releases, please! I'd use next tag for all the beta ones and no tag for stable releases. Pretty much industry standard at the moment.

[brendandahl]

I did some work on this over in https://github.com/mozilla/botio-files-pdfjs/pull/22.

One thing I'm not sure how to handle is fixing our current npm setup. I'm thinking I'll retag the 2.0 branch as next and publish an older 1.0 version as stable until we release. This may lead to some weirdness for anyone who's already pulled a 2.0 release from npm though. Open to suggestions!

[wojtekmaj]

Can't answer for the whole community but in my opinion, the change is very much worth this one-time commotion.

[timvandermeij]

I think that that is indeed the best solution here. Moreover, if we release the final 2.0 version, it will have a higher version number, so I think (but I might be wrong here since I'm not that fimilar with the inner workings of NPM) that people that pulled a previous release will then automatically be upgraded to the final 2.0 version.

[wojtekmaj]

Oh yeah. We can just tag non-final releases with next instead of latest starting with official 2.0. So:

1. ^1.x.xxx users will still to be on newest 1.x pre-release released - no change
2. ^2.x.xxx users will receive final stable 2.0 and will stop receiving pre-releases
3. latest users will receive final stable 2.0 and will stop receiving pre-releases

So that's pretty sweet IMO.

We could also give people from point 1 stuck on 1.x pre-release a hint using npm deprecate by deprecating all 1.x pre-releases with a message like "You're likely unknowingly using unstable PDF.js release. Please downgrade to the newest stable version, 1.9.xxx or upgrade to all-new 2.x version. Upgrade guide here: http://example.com/pdfjsupgradeguide".

[timvandermeij]

The change for the bots is now merged.

@brendandahl Is there anything else that needs to be done for this issue, other than perhaps a bot restart/webhook?

[SavePointSam]

Where does this sit? I'm really hoping for a webpack 4 compatible release soon.

[prohtex]

It seems like this is done

[timvandermeij]

Yes, the pdfjs-dist repository is not changed after every commit anymore. I'm just not sure if the release process was working correctly. @brendandahl Didn't you have some issues with that while creating the pre-release? If there are issues, they need to be ironed out because if the pre-release becomes the final release it should also be published to pdfjs-dist.

[banyan]

@timvandermeij

do you have any plan when will you release for 2.0? is there any remaining issues regarding 2.0? https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/projects/5

[prohtex]

@banyan You can use it now:
https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/releases/tag/2.0.550

[wojtekmaj]

@prohtex, it's clearly marked as a pre-release.

[prohtex]

@wojtekmaj Didn't say it wasn't a pre-release. I was told it would be more or less functionally the same as release. Given that is very difficult to find this link, I thought I'd share it.

[timvandermeij]

Closing since this is done.