automating 'vos release'

[Jeff Blaine]

> This is going to require that we run a "vos release" on a periodic,
> automated basis.

Require?

I'm against the idea in concept, but that's an opinion.  Why not do
it by hand (takes 3 seconds to type) when you know you want to
release for sure?  Anyway...

> * if the read/write version of a volume has not changed since
>    the last release, will "vos release" no-op, or will it try to
>    synchronize anyway.

I believe what happens is that it will check out the replicas
(quickly), determine that they are up to date, and do nothing.

> * would it make sense to attempt to determine whether a volume
>   has changed before doing a release?  --I don't have a very good
>   sense for how resource expensive "vos release" is.

Sure.

>    if it would be a good idea to only release when necessary, is there
>    a more efficient way to discover whether a read/write volume has
>    changed since the last release other than comparing the mtimes
>    of all directories in the volumes?

vos examine my.volume.name | grep 'Last Update'

> Is anyone else doing this sort of thing?