Re: [Xen-devel] Notes from Xen BoF at Debconf15

["Jan Beulich" <JBeulich@xxxxxxxx>]

>>> On 08.09.15 at 12:15, <ian.campbell@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, 2015-09-08 at 03:47 -0600, Jan Beulich wrote:
>> > > > On 08.09.15 at 11:24, <ian.campbell@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> > Release cycle
>> > =============
>> > 
>> > Waldi commented that the stable release cycle was too long. Would like
>> > to see a release after any large security update.
>> > 
>> > We asked if the RCs for stable releases were valuable, the answer was
>> > "not so much".
>> > 
>> > Waldi would prefer to avoid cherry-picking security fixes if possible.
>> > 
>> > We asked if we thought Xen stable releases could be added to Debian
>> > point releases. Waldi thought they likely could be, citing the
>> > inclusion of Linux stable releases in point releases.
>> > 
>> > Our stable releases follow a similar set of rules to Linux, we think
>> > we implement them more faithfully (less feature or feature-like
>> > backports)
>> > 
>> > ACTION: Talk to Jan about making changes to stable release process.
>> 
>> That's kind of the opposite of what we quite recently changed to
>> (a [hopefully] more predictable four month cycle). Apart from the
>> question what "large" is, doing a release after any large security
>> update seems unreasonable to me (not only because of giving up
>> the predictability, but also because of the overhead involved,
>> which is there even if we ditched the RCs). I have to admit that I
>> fail to see why Debian would be different than other distros, all
>> cherry picking security fixes until a new stable release becomes
>> available. If otoh other major distros voiced similar desires, I
>> think we'd have to once again re-think our stable release cadence.
> 
> IIRC (hopefully Ian or someone else will correct me if not) the main
> proposal to discuss with you was WRT the usefulness of the RCs for stable
> releases, since it was felt they didn't provide much benefit to
> downstreams.
> 
> IOW perhaps it would be just as useful to downstreams and less work for us
> (mainly you I suppose) to do 0 or only 1 rc for a point release, based on
> whatever is in the branch at the appropriate time. It might also avoid
> various delays which the stable release process can currently suffer from
> waiting for a push for each rc instead of just once (or maybe twice), which
> in turn might help the release timing to be even more predictable.

Right - 4.4.3 already was released with just one RC, and indeed I
meant to stay with that model considering the little (if any) feedback
we get on these RCs. I personally could live without doing any RCs,
but thought so far that doing at least one kind of publicly indicates
the intention of doing a release soon.

Jan


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