I hope I'm not critically late in posting this comment, as I was distracted by various... chores and verbiage.

a sane procedure for a dev maintaining his apps?

Are you interested in my rambling halfbaked opinions?

I warn you, and anyone else who might jump on this part of the already bloated conversation, that you're likely to continue commenting as you often do on my comments. also, it's been a long time since anyone considered me "maintainer" of any "apps"; my method boils down to building tools for my own use, and using them to service my clients.