[asterisk-users] *End Of Life ASTERISK 1.2.X Was: INSTRUCTIONSFORTHE ASTERISK COMMUNITY - PLEASEREAD NOW *

[Jared Smith]

On 5/30/07, Steve Totaro <stotaro at asteriskhelpdesk.com> wrote:
> I do hope that when they find major security bugs like the recent SIP
> bug for example, that affected both 1.2.x and 1.4.x, they backport the
> fix.  At least if the code base has not changed all that much and it is
> only a few lines of code.

Yes, that's the whole idea of putting Asterisk 1.2 into "Security
Maintenance Mode" (or whatever the official name is for it).  Security
issues will still be fixed for 1.2.x releases, but
non-security-related bug fixes will only be applied to the 1.4 branch
and trunk.  I would anticipate that security issues will continue to
be fixed until the next branch (1.6?) is released, and enough time has
elapsed until 1.4 is put into security mode as well.  The idea is that
at any given time, you'll have:

Trunk -- new features + bug fixes + security fixes
Current release branch -- bug fixes + security fixes, but no new features
Previous release branch -- security fixes only (after ~6 months from
the date that the current release branch is released).

Just to clarify, we currently have:

Trunk -- new features + bug fixes + security fixes
1.4 -- bug fixes + security fixes, but no new features
1.2 -- security fixes only

When 1.6 is released we'll have:

Trunk -- new features + bug fixes + security fixes
1.6 -- bug fixes + security fixes, but no new features
1.4 -- bug fixes + security fixes, but no new features

and about six months after 1.6 is released, we'll have:

Trunk -- new features + bug fixes + security fixes
1.6 -- bug fixes + security fixes, but no new features
1.4 security fixes only

The idea is to give everyone a reasonable amount of time to migrate
their systems, after a new release branch is released.  I think
everyone realizes that a new release branch isn't automagically
perfect, and it takes a little time to shake out the bugs.

If you're still having problems with the 1.4 branch (or with specific
versions of the 1.2 branch), I suggest you do the following to help
the developers track down the problems:

1) Check to see if there are any other bug reports with the same
symptoms as your own.
2) If there aren't any, fill out your own bug report.  Please include
as much pertinant information as possible.  Does the problem only
occur during high call volumes?  Is it repeatable?  Was a core file
generated?  If so, please provide a backtrace.
3) Please work with the bug marshalls and developers as they request
feedback in the bug tracker.  Unfortunately, we have a high number of
bugs where someone reports a bug, but doesn't give any additional
information when requested.
4) Try any suggested patches.  I know this is difficult for some
people (especially those who are running Asterisk in production
systems, and don't have a test environment setup).  Unfortunately, the
developers can't fix the bugs without your help.

-Jared