[lttng-dev] Release strategy

[Matthew Khouzam]

Thank you very much, this clears up a lot of stuff


On 13-07-23 11:30 PM, Christian Babeux 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?
Could you add a 'staging' branch for features, kind of like a passing
lane on a highway?
A gerrit like system also could help. that way people will be able to
push patches and get reviews. Does redmine have something similar?

>
> 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?
>
> For 3), I would try to put tentative release dates on the roadmap on
> Redmine or on a wiki article similar to [4]?
>
> 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.
>
> 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
>>
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