Build Master: Scheduling

[deadalnix]

On Thursday, 14 November 2013 at 00:37:38 UTC, Tyro[17] wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I have accepted the responsibility of preparing the builds for 
> DMD and would like to engage in conversation about the way 
> ahead.
>
> The first concern I have is about the build cycle. Presently, 
> it is nonexistent. There is no rhyme or reason regarding when 
> releases are produced. The v2.065 agenda (first attempt of its 
> kind) suggests that the next release will occur sometime in 
> March 2014. I'm of the opinion, however, that the cycle should 
> be six months long. This particular schedule is not of my own 
> crafting but I believe it to be sound and worthy of emulation:
>
> Schedule
> --------
>
> 2.064 --- 2.064.1 --- 2.064.2 -- ...
>   \
>    + -- 2.065beta1 --- 2.065beta2 --- ... --- 2.065rc1 --- 
> 2.065 --- 2.065.1 --- ...
>                                                             \
>                                                               + 
> -- 2.066beta1 --- ...
>
> Starting from the date of a major release (November 5th):
>
> At four-week intervals we make a new beta release. There will 
> be no separate release candidate, but if a serious problem is 
> discovered we may do the next beta ahead of schedule or make a 
> point release. There will be about five or six releases in that 
> series.
>
> In parallel with this, bugs targeted to the previous major 
> release are merged into its branch. We will make bugfix 
> releases from that branch as appropriate to the accumulation of 
> changes, perhaps monthly, perhaps more often if there are 
> serious bugs, perhaps much less often if no new changes have 
> landed.
>
> We will then make a release candidate for the next major 
> release, and at this point create a release branch for it. We 
> will iterate release candidates at approximately weekly 
> intervals until there are no bugs blocking the final major 
> release.
>
> Major releases (2.0)
>     The big ones, every six months, intended to ship in 
> distributions and to be used by stability-oriented users.
>
> Release Candidates (2.065rc1)
>     Created one to two weeks before the release branch is 
> created, this is a preview of the major release. There should 
> be very few, if any changes from the release candidate to the 
> major release.
> Bugfix releases (2.064.1)
>     Based on the previous major release or bugfix; contains 
> only bugfixes and perhaps documentation corrections.
>
> Beta release (2.065beta1)
>     Created monthly from master, except for those months in 
> which we create a major release. Stable and suitable for users 
> who want the latest code and can live with changes from month 
> to month.
>
> Your thoughts and concerns please.

Awesome. That is perfect.