Here is my proposal for the Release Plan. If people have any concerns with the plan, then please raise them ASAP.
After a chance to discuss it (e.g. perhaps different dates, or Java version, etc.) we will vote on this Release Plan. Please check with your time schedules and comment. We want to have as many people available as possible to test the release candidate. So we can adjust the time schedule a bit to suit. For background info on this step and on the release process in general, see http://forrest.apache.org/procedures/release/How_to_release.html#PrepRelPlan ------------------------ Proposed Java version to test this release is Java 1.4 ------------------------ The phases are: Voting to accept the Release Plan ends on Monday 2007-04-01 at 22:00 UTC [1]. Code freeze and testing starts on Monday 2007-04-09 at 22:00 UTC [2]. We create the release candidates for both Windows and UNIX on this day and start the testing. Don't bother voting until towards the end of the week, because we might need a new release candidate and the vote needs to happen against the actual final packages. During "code freeze" we cannot add any new functionality or non-essential work, just bug fixes and documentation tweaks [5]. If any changes have been made during the week, then we create another set of release candidates on Saturday 2007-04-14 at 22:00 UTC [3] to give people time to verify the signatures and checksums and to do final tests. Between now and the release date there must no changes to SVN. If any are absolutely necessary, then we delay the release date and do another set of release candidates. Actual release date is Monday 2007-04-16 at 22:00 UTC [4] then wait for the mirrors to receive it before sending the announcements. ------------------------ The proposed milestones are: [1] end of vote on Release Plan Monday 2007-04-01 at 22:00 UTC http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?day=02&month=04&year=2007&p1=136&p2=48&p3=176&p4=240&p5=224&p6=213 [2] create initial release candidate, start testing Monday 2007-04-09 at 22:00 UTC http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?day=09&month=04&year=2007&p1=136&p2=48&p3=176&p4=240&p5=224&p6=213 [3] create final release candidate Saturday 2007-04-14 at 22:00 UTC http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?day=14&month=04&year=2007&p1=136&p2=48&p3=176&p4=240&p5=224&p6=213 [4] end of vote on final release candidate and commence the upload phase Monday 2007-04-16 at 22:00 UTC http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?day=15&month=04&year=2007&p1=136&p2=48&p3=176&p4=240&p5=224&p6=213 [5] Code freeze is defined here http://forrest.apache.org/procedures/release/announce_code_freeze.txt ------------------------ I will be the Release Manager and am happy to do the process by myself. This makes it easier for me. However, it is important to pass on knowledge, so perhaps someone does want to assist. Otherwise we can soon do a 0.9 release and do that then. In any case, it needs someone to create the Windows packages. See http://forrest.apache.org/procedures/release/How_to_release.html for general background and specifically the http://forrest.apache.org/procedures/release/How_to_release.html#BuildDist at Steps 11 to 14. Depending on where this person is situated, we might need to adjust the time of day for the milestones. ------------------------ There are a number of fixme notes in the "How_to_release" doc. Two that definitely need to be attended to are: deciding the content of the release and reviewing the procedure for releasing the plugins. Those can be attended to in the time leading up to the code freeze. The other fixme notes are about an alternative method, i.e. creating a release branch early, rather than working with trunk. I prefer to not attempt this at this late stage. I know that the current procedure of releasing from trunk works. After this we will have a better idea and can perhaps attempt that for the 0.9 release. -David
