Re: [Xen-devel] RFC: change to 6 months release cycle

[Wei Liu <wei.liu2@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Oct 05, 2015 at 05:04:19AM -0600, Jan Beulich wrote:
> >>> On 02.10.15 at 19:43, <wei.liu2@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > The main objection from previous discussion seems to be that "shorter
> > release cycle creates burdens for downstream projects". I couldn't
> > quite get the idea, but I think we can figure out a way to sort that
> > out once we know what exactly the burdens are.
> 
> I don't recall it that way. My main objection remains the resulting
> higher burden of maintaining stable trees. Right now, most of the
> time we have two trees to maintain. A 6-month release cycle means
> three of them (shortening the time we maintain those trees doesn't
> seem a viable option to me).
> 
> Similar considerations apply to security maintenance of older trees.
> 

Sorry, my memory failed me. So the major objection is the maintenance
burden of stable releases.

What do you consider "must-have"s when it comes to stable releases?

The only "must-have" to me is that we need stable releases. This
doesn't preclude us from exploring other options to achieve that goal.

Just to throw around some ideas: we can have more stable tree
maintainers, we can pick a stable tree every X releases etc etc.

> > # Proposed release cycle
> > 
> > Aim for 6 months release cycle -- 4 months development period, 2
> > months hardening period. Make two releases per year.
> > 
> > Fixed hard cut-off date, no more freeze exception. Arrange RCs
> > immediately after cut-off.
> > 
> > Take into account holiday seasons in US, Europe and China, the two
> > cut-off dates are the Fridays in which that last day of March and
> > September are in.
> > 
> > Targeted release date is two months after cut-off date. Still, we pick
> > a Friday using the same rule. We can also release a bit earlier if
> > everything goes well. If we somehow fail to release on time, we eat
> > into next development cycle. The next cut-off date will still be
> > fixed.
> > 
> > With the proposed scheme, the dates will be:
> > 
> >  - 4.7 cut-off date: April 1, 2016
> >  - 4.7 release date: June 1, 2016
> > 
> >  - 4.8 cut-off date: September 30, 2016
> >  - 4.8 release date: December 2, 2016
> > 
> >  - 4.9 cut-off date: March 31, 2017
> >  - 4.9 release date: June 2, 2017
> > 
> > and it goes on.
> 
> Despite my disagreement to the 6 month cycle, I do agree to
> this part of the proposal, i.e. setting a fixed release schedule,
> independent of how much the previous release slipped (or got
> released early).
> 

Any cycle that is not denominator of 12 is going to eventually collide
with holiday seasons. That's bad IMHO, but with adequate planning the
impact can be minimised.

Wei.

> Jan

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