Xen 4.16 development update - commit moratorium

[Ian Jackson <iwj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tree status
===========

We are now in code freeze.

All patches which have not yet been committed, but which still need to
go into 4.16, need a release ack.

I will be cutting RC1 shortly.  Please do not commit anything, even
release-acked patches, until I let you know.


The current planned release schedule
====================================

    Friday 29th October *PASSED*          Code freeze

      Bugfixes only, all changes to be approved by the Release Manager,
      on the basis of a (progressively stricter[*]) risk assessment.
      (2 weeks)

    Friday 12th November                  Hard code freeze [*]

      Bugfixes for serious bugs (including regressions), and low-risk
      fixes only.
      (0.5 weeks)

    Tuesday 16th November **tentative**   Branch off staging-4.16

      xen-unstable open again - with caveats to avoid release disruption.
      (1.5 weeks)

    Friday 26th November **tentative**    Final commits (docs/prep only)
    Week of 29th November **tentative**   Release
      (probably Tuesday or Wednesday)


Open issues and blockers
========================

Here is the list of issues I am aware of that might be blockers and/or
might need a release ack for fixes:

In general, please would people explicitly note release-blocker issues
to me, so that I can see that they are sorted out.


* "gnttab: allow setting max version per-domain".  This would be
  nice to have, as it is a security mitigation for possible future
  bugs.  However it is not quite ready afaict.  Hopefully it will
  be ready very soon.

ARM/VPCI:

* "xen/arm: fix SBDF calculation for vPCI MMIO handlers"
  I have just sent a mail about this one.  I'm unsure of
  the merits of this for 4.16.

* "arm/smmuv1,v2: Protect smmu master list with a lock"
  Discussion is ongoing.

* "xen/domctl: Introduce XEN_DOMCTL_CDF_vpci flag"
  which Andy had some observations about in an email on the 8th.
  This was reverted in 2075b410ee80.  I think this issue now dealt
  with as far as 4.16 goes ?

* I'm not sure if there are others.  My question about that hasn't had
  a clear answer as far as I can tell.  I would like to repeat my
  earlier comment: I am finding it hard to see the wood for the trees.

x86:

* I have a note "HPET regression".  I saw a number of patches in
  this area.  Most recently,
  "x86/hpet: setup HPET even when disabled due to stopping in deep C states"
  Does that mean this is dealt with now ?

* "x86/xstate: reset cached register values on resume"
  AFAICT an approach was agreed between Jan and Roger but I don't
  seem to see the final version posted or in tree.  Am I missing
  something ?

* "x86/viridian: EOI MSR should always happen in affected vCPU context"
  Jan mentioned this on IRC but I don't see any discussion of it in
  my mailbox.

* Disable building qemu-trad by default.
  This is on my own todo list, with my maintainer/committer hat on.


Ian.

[*] The distinction between Code Freeze and Hard Code Freeze is a
matter of degree, not kind; the Hard Code Freeze data and associated
tighter policy text is indicative rather than normative.