Hi Steve,
These are good questions and hopefully we'll try to flush them out while we're 
performing the initial few releases.

> (1) When we decide to make a release, does someone create a branch for
> the release? I'm assuming yes, because otherwise there needs to be some
> way of freezing development on the trunk. Where can I find that branch?
By default, the mvn release plugin automatically always creates a tag by 
default(example 3.0.0-incubating, etc.).  
Code is checked out and built from this tag for distribution. 
The tag could be treated as a frozen version when it was cut from trunk and the 
release number is incremented in trunk for future development.

> (2) After we make a release, where do bug-fixes for that release go? 
> I can imagine at least two answers: (a) bug-fixes and new features both go to
> trunk, and all releases will be new branches off of trunk or (b) bug-fixes and
> new features both go to trunk, bug-fixes only are merged into the release
> branch, and bug-fix releases are done from the release branch, while new-
> feature releases create new branches off of trunk.

>From past experience with cTAKES, I believe we have been doing a) more often.  
>i.e. if we find a bug, we fix it in trunk. New releases will be cut from trunk 
>along with new features (simpler for the push forward mechanism rather than 
>patching existing releases).
For the few cases if we ever need to patch an existing release, we can create a 
patch branch from the tag- put the bug fixes both the patch branch and trunk (I 
believe this is what Sean F also suggested).  Trunk always continues with new 
development as usual.

We can also always create a branch as well as a tag in svn by default for every 
release (but this just seemed like an extra step if we already have it tagged- 
unless something thinks it's worth it.)
This is just a suggestion based on my observations here so far.   I'm a big fan 
to keep the release process as simple as possible though.  

Thanks,
Pei



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven Bethard [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 5:46 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: technical release process questions
> 
> I have a few technical questions about cTAKES releases:
> 
> (1) When we decide to make a release, does someone create a branch for
> the release? I'm assuming yes, because otherwise there needs to be some
> way of freezing development on the trunk. Where can I find that branch?
> 
> (2) After we make a release, where do bug-fixes for that release go? I can
> imagine at least two answers: (a) bug-fixes and new features both go to
> trunk, and all releases will be new branches off of trunk or (b) bug-fixes and
> new features both go to trunk, bug-fixes only are merged into the release
> branch, and bug-fix releases are done from the release branch, while new-
> feature releases create new branches off of trunk.
> 
> What's the process here?
> 
> Steve

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