With the current process new features can be added with tests can target
18 as soon as the branch is cut but would not go into 18.0. What would
happen with new features in this scheme, would they just get held open
in gerrit until 18.0 is branched or be accepted as normal since 18.0.0
release process is not yet started? I agree a month is plenty of time
for the release candidate cycle but think it would be good to decide how
new features will be dealt with before 18 is branched.
On 7/8/20 8:20 AM, Joshua C. Colp wrote:
Greetings all,
I've given this some thought in the past and thought with the
impending branching of Asterisk 18 I'd get some input on a change to
the process. The new major version process has evolved over time but
hasn't really been changed lately. Let's look at what it is like in
practice today:
On July 15th under current process both the 18 branch and 18.0
branches will be cut. The 18 branch will continue to receive all bug
fixes, but the 18.0 branch will only receive changes as a result of
issues found through testing 18.0 or through big fixes to new
functionality in it. This means that when 18.0.0 is actually released
it is generally a few months behind. In the past this was to give it
time to stabilize as it were. This presents the following issues:
1. It leaves a confusing area for developers where we have to ask
"should this go into 18.0?"
2. It confuses users because if they upgrade to 18.0.0 then it is
likely the other current releases have bug fixes they don't have,
which has caused issues for users in the past.
I don't think this is the best situation for either.
I'd like to propose that instead of cutting the 18.0 branch on July
15th we simply cut the 18 branch, and that it continues to receive all
bug fixes. Approximately a month before a target release of 18.0.0 we
create the first release candidate, 18.0.0-rc1. At this time we also
create release candidates of the other branches. All release
candidates will then be left available for a prolonged period of time
to give people ample time to test. On the release date all will be
released, ensuring that all branches including 18 have the same set of
bug fixes as appropriate to their version.
This removes the confusion for developers over whether to include a
fix, since the 18.0 branch won't exist until rc1 at which point normal
cherry pick rules apply. This also eliminates the confusion
experienced by users since all releases will be on the same page at
the same time at release.
What do people think? Do we believe that a month out is ample enough?
The 18 branch itself will exist, so that can be used for early testing
(and likely will be). If a month isn't enough it could be moved out
further. Really I think thanks to the testing that happens and the
code review I don't think we need as long of a stabilization period as
has been needed in the past, so this helps shrink it.
Cheers,
--
Joshua C. Colp
Asterisk Technical Lead
Sangoma Technologies
Check us out at www.sangoma.com <http://www.sangoma.com> and
www.asterisk.org <http://www.asterisk.org>
--
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