Add aliases for MongoDB release series

[p-mongo]

Is it possible to have something like 4 aliased to 4.0.0.-rc5 for convenience?

[stennie]

@p-mongo Can you describe your use case a bit further - is this just intended to be shorthand for "fetch the latest RC"?

MongoDB version numbers use the first two components to indicate a release series, so perhaps an alias like m 4.0 might be convenient shorthand to download the latest 4.0.x GA release.

I'm not sure it is necessary to have an RC aliased as the default for a major version release, but possibly there could be a parameter to indicate that RCs are allowable. For example: m 4.0 --rc (install the latest 4.0.x GA or RC).

What do you think?

Regards, Stennie

[p-mongo]

You are right, aliasing 4 to 4.0.0-rc5 is not very appropriate. I would also agree with m 3.6 and m 4.0 --rc as valid use cases.

[stennie]

Thanks for the suggestion @p-mongo! I like the convenience of not having to remember the latest revision number available (or installed), so have added some aliases.

With 3.6 as an example:

• m 3.6: Install or activate the latest release of MongoDB 3.6
• m --stable 3.6: Output the latest version of MongoDB 3.6 available
• m --latest 3.6: Output the latest version of MongoDB 3.6 available (including dev & RCs)
• m use 3.6 [config ..]: Use the latest downloaded version of mongod 3.6.x
• m shell 3.6 [args ..]: Use the latest downloaded version of mongo 3.6.x

This doesn't replace any of the previous syntax if you prefer to install a specific release.

Checking for the latest release (as per the first example of m 3.6) does involve fetching a list of available versions and could perhaps be cached or sped up. The m use and m shell incantations only check for previously downloaded versions.

Regards, Stennie

[p-mongo]

Sounds great, thanks!