Updates to release.py:

__init__(): self.release_name used to be a UNIX timestamp, now it's formatted as Ymd-Hms.

perform(): minor tweaks to the logic, broke these commands up into 2 sets, one for "prep" commands, like cloning the git repo or symlinking static assets; the other is "transition" commands, and those are the ones that actually move things into place (typically this means renaming "current" to "previous", and "new" to "current").
Updating release.py, just some nit-picking: tweaked the format for the release_name, removed a semicolon, moved the pre_transition() method to now be below the pre_perform() method.
In the tools module, added an alias "fix_plugins" for the update_code_plugins_dir() task.
Updates to db.py:

- explicitly state the imports from .settings
 - don't import & don't use MySQL stuff (preferring to do it over bash, for now)
 - a bunch of other updates related to importing & exporting the database, not sure how solid it is though, need to re-organize all of this though, so just gonna let it in for now, i'll test it all before finalizing this branch.
Updates to the main __init__.py file:

- import fabric's confirm module
- deploy task now accepts a dry_run parameter (this isn't 100% yet, there's issues in db.py)
- migrate task takes dry_run param (same as deploy, need to improve db.py to make this work)
- added a sync_local_to_dev method, not sure this has even been used...?
Added Provision class to the tools module.
Code format: Swapping tabs for spaces
Updating gitignore, this ignore multiple settings filename, as long as they start with "settings_client_".
Updated the "rm" command that deletes the "previous" symlink, added a-rf to it.
Updates to the Release class: re-formatted, removed tabs/changed to spaces. Improved messaging throughout, streamlined some of the vars, broke the ommand set out into into "prep" & "transition" sets, and added a pre-transition hook.
Updating the tools script, removing the fix_plugins task, not needed anymore.
Updating the db.py script, formatting (tabs to spaces), changed the mysqldump & insert (bash) commands so that the output pipes to gzip, and the insert command is updated accordingly, so it gunzips/etc. Also, in the make_update_sql function, added a SQL command to change the option/upload_path value.
added a site_urls value to the settings file. (should update this to be caps-case).
Updates to the main fabfile/__init__ script. Rundown:

- adding confirm() to the mix. couple of the tasks now ask you to confirm things at various points.
- added function for sync_local_to_dev, not sure where this even used (pulling this from downstream client, just going to accept it for now)
Updating the tools: adding a provision script (should be treated as a guideline only, have not really tested this, especially when it comes to handling failure).
Updating the Release base class with better documentation.
Updating the release_example/ReleaseCustom class. Improved documentation, added some example/copy/paste code.
Updates to the example settings file, reformatted tabs to spaces, added a couple notes/comments, cleaned things up just a tiny bit.
fixing the fact that i didn't merge master into the downstream branch before i started working on things. so this gets that straight, we're overriding everything from master here, and accepting everything from the downstream branch.