I propose we change the provisional api policy page
http://felix.apache.org/documentation/development/provisional-osgi-api-policy.html
to this (markdown source):
The OSGi Alliance exposes provisional API that may or may not become part of
future OSGI specifications. This policy explains how and when Felix
subprojects may relate to such API. Provisional OSGi API refers to anything in
the `org.osgi.*` package namespace that is not part of a final released
specification.
## Policy
1. No Felix release may contain or refer to provisional OSGI API.
1. Provisional API may be included and used in unreleased source code, however
the API must be part of a final released OSGI specification before this felix
source may be released.
1. Although it is STRONGLY NOT RECOMMENDED, modified versions of provisional
api may be released with these modifications:
1. Any provisional OSGi API must be recreated in the `org.apache.felix.*`
package name space; this effectively makes it provisional Felix API.
1. All Felix provisional API must be marked as deprecated.
1. All Felix provisional API exported from bundles should be exported with a
mandatory attribute of `status="provisional"`.
## Discussion
The first goal of this policy is to completely avoid using provisional OSGi API
in released Felix projects given the potential confusion and questions by doing
so. The second goal is to make the existence of any released Felix provisional
API completely obvious to downstream users and make it difficult for them to
use it unknowingly. However, any such release is likely to involve numerous
problems such as incorrect semantic versioning or version mismatch between the
provisional and eventual osgi release and bundle version inflation if the felix
provisional api is removed after the OSGI API is released.
As an example, to provisionally export the `org.apache.felix.service.metatype`
package, the
`Export-Package` statement would look something like this:
:::xml
<Export-Package>
org.apache.felix.service.metatype; version="0.1"; mandatory="status";
status="provisional"
</Export-Package>
When working with new OSGI specifications, constructing a Felix provisional API
will likely result in parallel package structures between the provisional OSGi
and Felix APIs. When working with existing specifications, it may be necessary
to create extensions to existing OSGi interfaces in the Felix package namespace.
Comments?
thanks
david jencks
ps. JB, Guillaume, what exactly are you +1ing? That we keep talking? That the
policy stay the same? Change?
On May 16, 2014, at 7:56 PM, "Richard S. Hall" <he...@ungoverned.org> wrote:
> On 5/16/14, 20:43 , David Jencks wrote:
>> You have a point about specs that don't get released. And in such a
>> circumstance having something released with org.osgi packages marked
>> provisional would be sort of a disaster.
>>
>> But if a felix subproject is going to be an osgi ri, it really needs to be
>> developed with the right package names. Otherwise, for instance, debugging
>> the conformance test suite will be more or less impossible, as well as
>> making running the ri against the ct implausible.
>
> I believe we did have this issue with the Config Admin RI and somehow we
> managed.
>
>>
>> So I think I'd like the policy to say (sub) projects are strongly
>> discouraged from releasing anything with a non released osgi spec api no
>> matter what package it's moved to and how provisional it's marked, but it's
>> ok to have unreleased org.osgi packages in source as long as either the spec
>> gets released before any felix release is made or they are removed before
>> any felix release is made.
>
> I don't think we can leave policy as a recommendation, because then it still
> leaves it up to whomever to decide.
>
> Again, I don't have an issue with saying it is okay in source form, but not
> in a released artifact.
>
>
>>
>> My next DS commits add the DTO stuff, so unless the policy is changed they
>> will have to wait on github for a while.
>
> So, make a modified policy proposal and put it up for comments and ultimately
> a vote.
>
> -> richard
>
>>
>> thanks
>> david jencks
>>
>>
>>
>> On May 16, 2014, at 2:24 PM, Richard S. Hall <he...@ungoverned.org> wrote:
>>
>>> There was thought that went into that policy, it wasn't just pulled out of
>>> the air...further, from experience of working on that specs that didn't
>>> make the cut (original OBR and Gogo), I can say the policy does a good job
>>> of avoiding the confusion/complication created in those cases.
>>>
>>> So, working around the policy based on personal whim, doesn't seem like a
>>> good idea...that sort of makes it not a policy.
>>>
>>> However, all policies can be improved. You could argue that the policy
>>> should simply be modified, as David suggests, to say only "released"
>>> subprojects must not contain provisional API.
>>>
>>> I'd personally be fine with that, but such a subproject would still have to
>>> be fine with not having an official release until the specs are final.
>>>
>>> -> richard
>>>
>>> On 5/16/14, 13:59 , David Jencks wrote:
>>>> Well, I pretty much disagree with the existing policy being good or nice,
>>>> but I think I agree with your proposal.
>>>>
>>>> I think that there should be very different policy for the svn tree and
>>>> for releases. I don't think it's a very good idea to have a release with
>>>> a provisional osgi api, whether or not it's had its packages shaded.
>>>> However if we decide we need to do this I think _either_ renaming the
>>>> packages _or_ marking the packages provisional should be sufficient, not
>>>> both.
>>>>
>>>> For the svn tree, I think it's fine to just copy the osgi draft source
>>>> into some appropriate location and build it as part of the project. The
>>>> svn tree is not for general consumption, if you use it you are supposed to
>>>> know what you are doing and you certainly aren't supposed to rely on it
>>>> for production without doing your own deternimation that it is entirely
>>>> suitable, since it comes with no assurances of anything from apache. We
>>>> just shouldn't release anything in this state: either the spec gets
>>>> released first, or we mark the spec packages provisional or rename them.
>>>>
>>>> I have the same problem with the felix ds/rfc 190 work, with the new
>>>> runtime and dto packages, and realistically for me the options are either
>>>> changing the policy, or keeping my work visible on github until the spec
>>>> is released.
>>>>
>>>> I don't have time or interest to investigate, but it might be possible to
>>>> use the maven shade plugin to rename the packages in byte code. I imagine
>>>> we'd have to run bnd after this step. I don't know if the shading can be
>>>> done to integration tests as well so the instructions to bnd don't have to
>>>> be duplicated with and without the mangled package names so we can create
>>>> an unshaded bundle for unshaded integration tests.
>>>>
>>>> thanks for reminding me to think about this before I committed :-)
>>>>
>>>> david jencks
>>>>
>>>> On May 15, 2014, at 11:14 PM, Carsten Ziegeler <cziege...@apache.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> right now we have a policy for handling provisional OSGi API (API that is
>>>>> currently drafted in the OSGi expert groups but not final or officially
>>>>> released yet):
>>>>> http://felix.apache.org/documentation/development/provisional-osgi-api-policy.html
>>>>>
>>>>> While the policy is good and nice, it requires to rename the packages from
>>>>> an OSGi namespace to an Apache one for the reasons stated in the policy.
>>>>> However, this creates a burden for people using this stuff, e.g. when
>>>>> writing tests as these need to be refactored later on anyway.
>>>>>
>>>>> The reference implementation of the new Http Service (RFC 189) will be
>>>>> done
>>>>> as part of Apache Felix and we would like to start working on this in the
>>>>> open. Therefore we need to commit the current version of the API draft
>>>>> somewhere. I think if we do this in the whiteboard section, it should be
>>>>> clear enough that the API is provisional and we don't need to rename the
>>>>> packages. We can also add all kinds of disclaimers/readmes etc.
>>>>> But before doing so, I would like to get the general feeling about this.
>>>>>
>>>>> So, wdyt?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> Carsten
>>>>> --
>>>>> Carsten Ziegeler
>>>>> cziege...@apache.org
>
