Build Master: Scheduling II

[Andrew Edwards]

On 12/3/13, 12:21 PM, tn wrote:> In general this sounds great. However:
 >
 > On Tuesday, 3 December 2013 at 14:26:07 UTC, Andrew Edwards wrote:
 >> Betas will be released four weeks after an official release.
 >
 > Does this mean that a new release branch will be created at that point?
 > I think it makes sense.

Yes.

 >> Once a release candidate is published, no new features will be added.
 >
 > Does this imply that new features are still added in beta phase? That
 > does not fit well with creating the branch in the beginning of the beta
 > phase.
 >
 > My opinion:
 >
 > I don't think new features should be added in beta phase. Instead it
 > should be for bug fixing. When no known blocker bugs are left, a release
 > candidate phase should be started. Relase candidate should be, as the
 > name implies, a candidate for release. Thus, if no new critical bugs are
 > found, then the release can be made in principle just by bumping the
 > version number.

You make a good point. I actually thought about that after I posted but 
was on my way to work so could not re-post at the time. The beta release 
will start a new branch and will basically follow the steps you 
describe. No new features after a beta is released.

 > More important than defining when the actual releases are made, is to
 > define when branching is done. It is easy to slip release date because
 > of new bugs and that can then delay the next release (depending on how
 > you implement the procedure). Instead, a new release branch should be
 > branched from the master branch exactly every 8 weeks. That should be
 > easy, since there are no such stability requirements as for actual
 > releases. Whether the following stabilisation phase (betas + release
 > candidates) lasts exactly 3 or 4 or 5 weeks is not that important as
 > long as the quality of the release will be acceptable. The phase should
 > last long enough that all blocker bugs are fixed. In this model the time
 > between actual releases can vary a bit, but on average it will be
 > exactly 8 weeks.

Make sense. I will take this into consideration.