[asterisk-dev] Proposal for New Major Version Process Change

[Corey Farrell]

With the current process new features can be added with tests can target 
18 as soon as the branch is cut but would not go into 18.0.  What would 
happen with new features in this scheme, would they just get held open 
in gerrit until 18.0 is branched or be accepted as normal since 18.0.0 
release process is not yet started?  I agree a month is plenty of time 
for the release candidate cycle but think it would be good to decide how 
new features will be dealt with before 18 is branched.

On 7/8/20 8:20 AM, Joshua C. Colp wrote:
> Greetings all,
>
> I've given this some thought in the past and thought with the 
> impending branching of Asterisk 18 I'd get some input on a change to 
> the process. The new major version process has evolved over time but 
> hasn't really been changed lately. Let's look at what it is like in 
> practice today:
>
> On July 15th under current process both the 18 branch and 18.0 
> branches will be cut. The 18 branch will continue to receive all bug 
> fixes, but the 18.0 branch will only receive changes as a result of 
> issues found through testing 18.0 or through big fixes to new 
> functionality in it. This means that when 18.0.0 is actually released 
> it is generally a few months behind. In the past this was to give it 
> time to stabilize as it were. This presents the following issues:
>
> 1. It leaves a confusing area for developers where we have to ask 
> "should this go into 18.0?"
> 2. It confuses users because if they upgrade to 18.0.0 then it is 
> likely the other current releases have bug fixes they don't have, 
> which has caused issues for users in the past.
>
> I don't think this is the best situation for either.
>
> I'd like to propose that instead of cutting the 18.0 branch on July 
> 15th we simply cut the 18 branch, and that it continues to receive all 
> bug fixes. Approximately a month before a target release of 18.0.0 we 
> create the first release candidate, 18.0.0-rc1. At this time we also 
> create release candidates of the other branches. All release 
> candidates will then be left available for a prolonged period of time 
> to give people ample time to test. On the release date all will be 
> released, ensuring that all branches including 18 have the same set of 
> bug fixes as appropriate to their version.
>
> This removes the confusion for developers over whether to include a 
> fix, since the 18.0 branch won't exist until rc1 at which point normal 
> cherry pick rules apply. This also eliminates the confusion 
> experienced by users since all releases will be on the same page at 
> the same time at release.
>
> What do people think? Do we believe that a month out is ample enough? 
> The 18 branch itself will exist, so that can be used for early testing 
> (and likely will be). If a month isn't enough it could be moved out 
> further. Really I think thanks to the testing that happens and the 
> code review I don't think we need as long of a stabilization period as 
> has been needed in the past, so this helps shrink it.
>
> Cheers,
>
> -- 
> Joshua C. Colp
> Asterisk Technical Lead
> Sangoma Technologies
> Check us out at www.sangoma.com <http://www.sangoma.com> and 
> www.asterisk.org <http://www.asterisk.org>
>
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