Sounds like a healthy release plan. Two questions, though:
1) for clarification: It looks like the versioning scheme matches the "Semantic Versioning" model (http://semver.org). Can you explicitly confirm this? If not, how do you intend to differ? 2) Will there be a roadmap outlining the planned features for releases conveniently, without having to sort through the issue tracker and pull requests? Best regards, David On Sep 17, 7:01 am, Fabien Potencier <fabien.potenc...@symfony- project.com> wrote: > My keynote last week at Symfony Live London was about adopting a formal > release process. In fact, I've talked about adopting a shorter release > cycle for Symfony for quite some time now, and I think that this is the > right time to discuss it. > > As we have all noticed, Symfony enjoys a large community of "core" > developers: a core developer being someone who contribute to Symfony on > a regular basis. The flow of pull requests has been outstanding and > steady for the past two years, and with such an activity, trying to > release often without a clear roadmap is quite difficult. Adopting a > more formal release cycle will also give more visibility to the > contributors and allow for everyone to understand when a new feature > might be available in Symfony. > > So, here is my initial proposal, which is the one I've talked about > during Symfony Live and of course, it is up for discussion. I would like > to apply the new release process as soon as possible and if possible for > Symfony 2.2. And whenever we all agree on the final version of this > proposal, it will be included in the official Symfony documentation. > > This release process only applies to the code hosted on the > symfony/symfony repository, but of course, I hope that third-party code > related to Symfony (like the Symfony bundles) will also adopt it (at > least, just for the timeline). > > Let's list the goals for the new process: > > * Shorten the release cycle; > > * Keep backward compatibility as much as possible; > > * Enhance the overall quality of the framework (not just the code, but > documentation, bundles, ...); > > * Give more visibility to our "customers": developers using the > framework to get their job done and Open-Soure projects using/embedding > Symfony; > > * Improve the experience of Symfony core contributors by controlling > the flow of incoming pull requests (why pull requests are not always > merged right away? when will a new feature be merged? when breaking BC > is acceptable? ...); > > * Coordinate our timeline with projects that we are using (Doctrine, > Propel, Monolog, Assetic, Twig, ...) but also with projects that are > using/embedding Symfony; > > * Give time to the Symfony ecosystem to catch up with the new versions > (bundleauthors, documentation writers, translators, ...); > * Allow developers to benefit from the new features faster. > > That's a lot to take care of! > > So, without further ado, here is my plan. > > Timeline > -------- > > Historically, we've been able to release a new major version every year > since 2005. Nothing was even written about that, but that's what we did. > > From now on, I propose to adopt a *time-based model* for Symfony and I > think that having a new major release every six months is a good > compromise: it gives plenty of time to work on new features but it also > allows for non-ready features to be postponed to the next version > (without having to wait too much for the next cycle). > > Six months should be fast enough for developers who want to work on the > latest and the greatest; but at the same time, companies might want more > time to learn and upgrade. The way to make everyone happy is to ensure > an easy upgrade path from one version to the next one. Take Twig as an > example: I've been able to release a new major version every month and a > half since 1.0; that's very fast and it has been possible because we've > kept backward compatibility between all major releases (and of course > the scope of Twig is also smaller). > > Six month releases mean that two releases fit in a year and so, > everybody knows when releases will be made without having to check on > the website: for Symfony it will be at the end of May and at the end of > November of each year. That brings predictability and visibility. > > The key is keeping backward compatibility. We must be much more careful > when breaking backward compatibility; and the possibility to break > backward compatibility depends on the component we are talking about. > The following components must never break backward compatibility because > they are the low-level architecture of the framework and also because so > many people rely on them: > > * ClassLoader > * Console > * DependencyInjection > * EventDispatcher > * HttpFoundation > * HttpKernel > * Routing > > Backward compatibility should be easy to keep for the following components: > > * BrowserKit > * CssSelector > * DomCrawler > * Filesystem > * Finder > * Locale > * OptionsResolver > * Process > * Templating > * Yaml > > And these components should probably become more stable soon, but that's > not that easy (yet): > > * Config > * Form > * Security > * Serializer > * Translation > * Validator > > Six months can be seen as a rather short period to make a new release, > especially if we look at what we did in the past. I think we can make it > work because we have now more people able to help, but also because the > six month period itself should be cut in shorter periods: > > * Development: 4 months to add new features and to enhance existing ones; > > * Stabilisation: 2 months to fix bugs, prepare the release, and wait > for the whole ecosystem to catch up. > > During the development phase, we can revert any new feature if we think > that we won't be able to finish it in time or if we think that it won't > be stable enough to be included. > > During the stabilisation phase, some developers might still work on new > features for the next version, but it would be better if most developers > can concentrate on finishing the current version. > > By the way, when I have a look at the pull requests today, I think that > we already have enough features for Symfony 2.2. > > Long Term Support release > ------------------------- > > We've not yet published our LTS release for Symfony2. As I mentioned it > in the past, the first LTS should be Symfony 2.3. > > Each LTS release will be supported for a 3 year period but it will also > be supported for at least a year after the next LTS is released. So, it > means that we are going to release a new LTS version every two years. > > This dual release cycle should make everyone happy. If you are a fast > mover, you want to work with the latest and the greatest, stick with the > standard support releases: you have a new version every six months, and > you have two months to upgrade to the next one. If you are a big > company, and you want more stability, stick with the long term support > releases: you get a new version every two years and you have a year to > upgrade. > > Schedule > -------- > > To make things more concrete, here is the schedule for the next few > versions: > > * Symfony 2.2 will be released at the end of February 2013; > > * Symfony 2.3 (the first LTS) will be released at the end of Mai 2013 > (only 3 months after 2.2 as it will be a "special" release in the sense > that we will mainly remove the 2.0 BC layer and also because I think > that May and November are the best months for releases); > > * Symfony 2.4 will be released at the end of November 2013; > > * Symfony 2.5 will be released at the end of Mai 2014; > > * ... > > So, why not releasing Symfony 2.2 earlier as we already have so many > features waiting in the pull request queue? Because of the next section: > this is our last chance to break backward compatibility. > > Symfony 3.0 > ----------- > > After the release of Symfony 2.3, backward compatibility will be kept at > all cost. If it is not possible, the feature/enhancement will be > scheduled for Symfony 3.0. And the work on 3.0 will start whenever we > think that we have enough great features under our belt to make it worth it. > > Maintenance > ----------- > > After Symfony 2.3, non LTS releases will be maintained for 8 months to > give people plenty of time to upgrade (keep in mind that even if no BC > breaks will have occurred, you might need to upgrade your applications > to benefit from the new features and the new best practices). > > Contributions > ------------- > > To make the new process works well (no BC and a fixed schedule), we need > to formalise the contribution process a bit more. Every new Symfony > feature or enhancement must be worked on via Git pull requests. A few > months ago, we formalised the pull request process a bit by adding a > required > [header](http://symfony.com/doc/current/contributing/code/patches.html#make-a-... > list. But I've done a poor job in enforcing the rule. So, I'm going to > be uncompromising about it now and at the same time I'd like to > introduce even more checks in the list. > > A pull request will only be merged if the following rules are met: > > * The code is correct and it uses the Symfony way of doing things > (naming conventions, coding standards, ...); > > * The new code is tested (or the bug to fix is covered by tests) and > all the tests pass on all supported PHP versions; > > * The documentation has been updated (with a pending pull request on > symfony/symfony-docs); > > * The changelog and upgrade files have been updated; > > * No backward compatibility break has been introduced; > > * If it is a fix, it has been applied to the oldest and still > supported Symfony version; > > * For major features, a RFC has been written, discussed, and approved. > > As I said at the beginning, this is a draft, and you are all welcome to > chime in and propose changes. -- If you want to report a vulnerability issue on symfony, please send it to security at symfony-project.com You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "symfony developers" group. 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