Hi, folks! So, during the blocker review process in the last few cycles, we have several times come up against the unfortunate situation that a bug that in the usual course of events would block a release is discovered extremely late - say the day before the go/no-go meeting - and at least some folks have argued that it's sometimes appropriate to not block the release in this case.
This position has gained quite a bit of acceptance, and we agreed at the F26 Final go/no-go meeting to draft up some formal policy for this so we can make such decisions consistently and not in an ad hoc way that might lead to it becoming a loophole that gets abused. So, here's my proposal for that. The actual guts of the 'review blockers' process are kind of split between https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_blocker_bug_process and https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_Blocker_Bug_Meeting , so we could kinda document this in either, but my preference is for the former. I propose we add a new section to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_blocker_bug_process , called 'Exceptional cases' or similar, as a sub-section of the 'Reviewing blocker bugs' section. This is my proposed text. Note that it also covers another type of case we have occasionally come across in the past, but similarly never specifically formulated. ################## === Exceptional cases === Generally speaking, any bug that is agreed to be a violation of the [[Fedora Release Criteria|release criteria]] should be accepted as a blocker bug for the next relevant milestone release. However, as explained in the [[Fedora_Release_Life_Cycle|Fedora life cycle page]] and the [[Fedora_Release_Criteria#Release_Constraints|release criteria]], we consider Fedora's release process not to be strictly based on time ''or'' strictly based on quality, but to take both into consideration. This can mean that, in some exceptional circumstances, we may agree that a bug constitutes a sufficient violation of the release criteria that it would ordinarily be accepted as a blocker bug for the next milestone release, but in fact accept it as a blocker bug for a later milestone release. There are currently two established circumstances in which this may occur. Firstly, it may occur if it is agreed to be very unlikely that the bug can possibly be fixed within a reasonable time frame for the release to be made. For instance, fixing the bug may be a task of such technical complexity that it cannot possibly be achieved for several weeks or months, and it may be held that such a delay would be too disruptive to Fedora's development to be justified. Secondly, it may occur if the bug is discovered very late in the release validation process. Sometimes, a relatively less important blocker bug (such as a non-vital default installed application on a release-blocking medium failing to run, for instance) may only be found very near the end of the release validation process, too late for it to be reasonably possible to fix it without delaying the release. Again, we may make the determination that in such a case it is preferable to go ahead with the release rather than delay it to fix such a late- discovered bug. All such cases must be evaluated and discussed by the usual parties (usually at a blocker bug review meeting) and all relevant factors must be taken into account, much like the discussion of a bug that is a 'conditional' violation of the release criteria. At least the following will almost always be relevant: * The severity and likely prevalence of the bug * Whether the bug could, or should, have been discovered earlier * How long the release in question has already been delayed * Whether delaying the release may give us an opportunity to carry out other desirable work * The possible effects of the expected delay (to Fedora itself, and also to other things influenced by Fedora's schedules, including downstream projects) It is expected that in almost 'exceptional' cases, the bug will be accepted as a blocker either for the very next milestone release, or for the equivalent milestone for the next release (e.g. if this 'exceptional' provision is agreed to apply to a bug that otherwise would have blocked {{FedoraVersion|long|next}} Final, it should be accepted as a blocker either for {{FedoraVersion|long|next2}} Alpha or {{FedoraVersion|long|next2}} Final). ################# That's a bit wordy (suggestions for cutting it down are appreciated!), but I think it covers all the salient points. Thoughts? Concerns? Suggestions? Thanks! -- Adam Williamson Fedora QA Community Monkey IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | XMPP: adamw AT happyassassin . net http://www.happyassassin.net _______________________________________________ devel mailing list -- devel@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to devel-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org
