On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 02:57:51PM +0100, Marc 'HE' Brockschmidt wrote: > Yes, please!
Draft below --8<---snip---8<-- Dear Developers, If you don't care about Debian 6.0 (codename "squeeze"), please skip this release update. Andreas Barth would like to sy that we have recently discussed the situation of the release, and it looks like we can pull the release off if we all do it together. As you know, releasing Debian is a team effort. Please see below the status of the open issues. If there is anything that you think needs to be part of high-level release planning and is not included below, please bring it to the release teams attention as soon as possible. == Current Transitions == Many transitions are currently in progress. The imagemagick transition has just been completed. The liblo transition is hanging on sivp. There are still plenty of open bugs[1] relevant to the python2.6 transition. In addition, python-central needs to be fixed before a slew of binNMUs can be scheduled. Switching mpi-defaults could break at least the following packages: apbs blacs-mpi gdcm igstk kwwidgets mumps petsc pgapack rmpi scalapack parted 2.2 moving from experimental to unstable will affect the following packages: devicekit-disks fatresize gnu-fdisk gparted libvirt partconf partitioner partitionmanager partman-base pyparted qtparted udisks eglibc 2.11 is being held up by serious hppa NPTL breakage, and if you are interested in all the great new features and performance enhancements, you might want to assist the hppa porters. The sooner eglibc 2.11 can get into unstable, the sooner any related bugs can be detected. Lucas Nussbaum has done an archive rebuild[2] with eglibc 2.11, and few issues were found, but there is no substitute for the thorough testing that comes through dogfooding. The linux-2.6/linux-base libata transition is ongoing in sid for i386 and will soon affect all architecture. Other transitions include BLAS/LAPACK and ruby1.9.1, which are presenting complexity or difficulties, as well as directfb, icu, boost 1.42, qt4.6, KDE 4.4, GNOME 2.30, icedove3, and evolution. The number of RC bugs concerning squeeze[3] is currently 756. Since the target for release is 0 RC bugs, this means a lot of bugs need to be fixed, and some packages removed from testing. Removals are more likely to occur if maintainers are unresponsive, but to get a removed package back into testing can be as trivial as fixing the RC bugs and waiting. == Release Goals == Many release goals may not be achieved in time. Full IPv6 support[4] is at least 115 bugs away from fruition. On the other hand, the Large File Support[5] goal seems to be only 10 bugs away. Having all packages be compatible with a potential dpkg-source default source format change[6] is 81 bugs away. These are very easy bugs to fix; if you find the 3.0 formats too confusing or scary, you can simply add a 1-line debian/source/format to make everyone happy and close the bug. Removing all unneeded .la files[7] is also very far off. GRUB2 is the default for some new installations, but not all cases. The downfall of OSS[8] is only 3 bugs away. The two GNU/kFreeBSD[9] architectures in the archive are at risk due to insufficient archive coverage. Open bugs[10] still remain in the way of the "Boot Performance" release goal. MultiArch[11] is still lacking dpkg support, and it looks like it would take a herculean effort to achieve everything in time. Many packages still use obsolete GNOME libraries[12]. == Timeline == We anticipate 7-10 days to finish transitioning at least liblo. The python2.6 switch could take two to four weeks, assuming no unpleasant surprises. This will involve a large binNMU campaign (about 200 packages) in addition to sourceful uploads. directfb and icu transitions could be done simultaneously, and then followed by boost, qt4.6, and KDE 4.4. If the python2.6 switch, directfb, and icu transitions can be completed by the end of April, and sufficient effort is put into QA and release work, a freeze by the end of May is not out of the question. == How to Help == Since there is an enormous amount of RC bugs, you can help facilitate the release by fixing RC bugs in your own packages. Other people might lack the time or motivation to live up to their responsibilities, so you can also fix the bugs in other people's packages. You might want to only upload software that you believe to be stable; packaging a version that you expect to get stable by freeze time could lead to unpleasant surprises and delay the release. Perhaps you would like to triage RC bugs. Perhaps you would like to monitor the state of release goals and give appropriate nudges. Perhaps you would like to help with the release notes[13]. Perhaps you would like to motivate others to do any of these things. == Administrivia == At present there is no official Release Manager, and all release team members are considered to have full authority on all matters. [1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=debian-pyt...@lists.debian.org;tag=python2.6 [2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2010/03/msg00216.html [3] http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/ [4] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?which=tag&data=ipv6&archive=no [5] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?which=tag&data=lfs&archive=no [6] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=hert...@debian.org;tag=3.0-quilt-by-default [7] http://wiki.debian.org/ReleaseGoals/LAFileRemoval [8] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=debian-rele...@lists.debian.org;tag=oss-removal [9] http://wiki.debian.org/ReleaseGoals/kFreeBSD [10] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org&suite=unstable&pend-exc=pending-fixed&pend-exc=fixed&pend-exc=done [11] http://wiki.debian.org/ReleaseGoals/MultiArch [12] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=pkg-gnome-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org;tag=oldlibs [13] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=release-notes;dist=unstable -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-release-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". 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