[lttng-dev] Release strategy

[Mathieu Desnoyers]

* Jérémie Galarneau (jeremie.galarneau at efficios.com) wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 11:30 PM, Christian Babeux
> <christian.babeux at efficios.com> wrote:
> > Hi Matthew,
> >
> > You certainly raise valid and interesting questions about our release
> > process. Here how I would categorize these questions:
> >
> > 1) Branching policy (when do we branch master? after the first release
> > candidate or after a final release?)
> >
> > 2) Release roadmap (when the next release is planned? what does it contain?)
> >
> > 3) Tentative release dates
> >
> > For 1), the current way we are doing things is that during a release
> > candidate phase for a new stable release, a complete code freeze is in
> > effect e.g. only bug fixes will be merged until a stable release is
> > out. Normally, after multiple release candidates, master is branched
> > into a stable branch and the final official stable release is created
> > from that branch.
> >
> > This could potentially cause troubles for contributors, e.g. posting a
> > set of patches and getting no response or waiting for merge if a
> > release candidate cycle is in effect. Any ideas/suggestions on how we
> > could improve this?
> >
> 
> We should create a separate branch at the first release candidate and
> stabilize it until the official release. The feature freeze would then
> only apply to that branch while invasive changes could be merged in
> master at all times. It would certainly make it easier on occasional
> contributors that may not be aware of the release schedule (at the
> expense of the maintainers' sanity...).

Being on the maintainer side of lttng-ust, lttng-modules, babeltrace and
userspace RCU, I vote for sanity ;)

Thanks,

Mathieu

> 
> > For 2), the release roadmap is available at [1]. The roadmap is kind
> > of a mess right now because bugs are assigned to older stable releases
> > giving the wrong impression that some stable releases are way late.
> >
> > We would need a way to distinguish between bugs on already released
> > versions and features targeting future versions. Perhaps something
> > like [2-3] could be promising?
> >
> 
> Disciplining ourselves in opening Features with reasonable target
> dates on the bug tracker may be enough to make the current "Roadmap"
> plug-in useful.
> 
> > For 3), I would try to put tentative release dates on the roadmap on
> > Redmine or on a wiki article similar to [4]?
> >
> 
> I'd prefer using the roadmap functionality. I'm afraid the wiki won't
> be maintained as releases slip.
> 
> > Another point that you did not mention is how we plan minor releases.
> > I think we will need to define a clear policy for minor releases
> > sooner than later because it is becoming quite painful to support
> > three codebases (modules, ust, tools) with three stable branches...
> > Perhaps in another thread?
> >
> > On a more general note, I think clear communication is the key here.
> > I'm wondering if a monthly summary of the development activities on
> > LTTng and related projects could be interesting for the community?
> > Content example:
> >
> > - What have we accomplished in the past month.
> > - What we are planning for the following month.
> > - Release status (next stable tentative release dates, planned minor
> > releases, etc.)
> > - Etc.
> >
> 
> Sounds good. It would also be a great opportunity to structure
> discussions around the planning.
> 
> Regards,
> Jérémie
> 
> > Any ideas/suggestions/constructive criticism on how we can improve our
> > release process are quite welcome!
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Christian
> >
> > [1] - http://bugs.lttng.org/projects/lttng/roadmap
> > [2] - http://www.redmine.org/plugins/advanced_roadmap
> > [3] - http://www.redmine.org/plugins/redmine_milestones
> > [4] - https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/schedule/
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 3:52 PM, Matthew Khouzam
> > <matthew.khouzam at ericsson.com> wrote:
> >> Hello tracing rangers,
> >>
> >> I am a bit confused about the whole release cycle system.
> >>
> >> If you guys are in RC, I have a cool feature I was working on, where do
> >> I put it?
> >>
> >> When are releases coming out? is it planned or a surprise (I know it's
> >> planned)
> >>
> >> What are your hard / soft deadlines?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Matthew
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> lttng-dev mailing list
> >> lttng-dev at lists.lttng.org
> >> http://lists.lttng.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lttng-dev
> >
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jérémie Galarneau
> EfficiOS Inc.
> http://www.efficios.com
> 
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-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
EfficiOS Inc.
http://www.efficios.com