> -----Original Message----- > From: Development <development-bounces+jani.heikkinen=qt.io@qt- > project.org> On Behalf Of Frederik Gladhorn > Sent: maanantai 16. huhtikuuta 2018 15.11 > To: development@qt-project.org > Subject: Re: [Development] Qt 5.12 schedule proposal & proposal for release > process change > > On mandag 16. april 2018 11.35.28 CEST Jani Heikkinen wrote: > > Hi! > > > > Keeping release tags is OK for me. Motivation behind my proposal was > > to stop planning other release dates than FF & final target. Currently > > we are trying to estimate also alpha, beta and RC release dates and it > > seems to cause some delays for us: persons aren't fixing blocker > > issues or doing the test because it seems there is a time to do that > > later (because e.g RC date is planned to be after a month). So if the > > way to go is to do these "releases" immediately when ready it might > > help us to get fixes in earlier and so on also get releases out quicker... > > This sounds like it is the real issue. In my opinion, we should have a list of > "known issues for betas" (does anyone know of a good way of tracking > these, so that it's obvious and little work?). JIRA? Somewhere else?
Hmm, we have this already in jira; we just need to create a proper filter for it. And in addition we have that blocker list in the use where all release (==RC) blockers should be visible and which is used to track when we are ready for RC. > > I think each beta is for finding more issues (if we consider it necessary), > but > we should not have anything block a beta from going out (OK, maybe if it > doesn't compile, but how did we end up in such a bad state?). So there is the > beta with a potentially growing and then shrinking list of release blockers. Actually we are already working pretty much like this: We don't have a blocker list for beta n release. For beta1 we have and it is to make sure beta1 will be good enough. But after that we just put new beta n out when packages ready. And target is to get these out within 2 weeks. > > This means we may have critical bugs not fixed in the next beta, only in the > RC latest. As written above we don't have blocker lists for beta n; just for RC > At the same time, I do wonder how strong the argument for more than one > beta release really is. We should rather offer continuous post-beta > snapshots, but IMHO we should only ask to test exactly once, during one > beta. > If we then trust that we fix the issues that were uncovered, we should move > to the RC phase, without another beta (beta2/3/4/... contain very few > changes compared to the first one anyway). There is little value in asking a > great amount of people to re-test. The bad issues uncovered in the beta can > be tested using post-beta snapshots, as needed. Yeah, I agree this at least some level. I think it doesn't matter how the packages are called. And that's why I proposed to stop releasing these. But now I understand that most probably we need those milestones and phases. And so on it is most clear to call releases as alpha or beta... But I think it would be pretty confusing if we release beta1 and then beta snapshots. We have used snapshot term for releases which aren't ready yet (alpha snapshot == pre-alpha, beta snapshot == pre beta1 etc) and so on publishing beta snapshot after beta1 would be a somehow confusing. Ok it could be e.g 5.12 snapshot (after beta release) but I don't see that much sense to stop delivering beta n releases if we continue these alpha and beta phases: next delivery after beta(1) release is naturally beta2 etc. And what comes to beta n changes: I wouldn't say there is very few changes in beta n compared to beta1. 5.11 alpha -> beta1:400 changes 5.11 beta1 ->beta2: 310 changes 5.11 beta2 ->beta3: 516 changes So I would say beta n:s are as necessary as beta1... > > The only thing that can be blocked imho is the release candidate. We should > never have a release candidate that does not include fixes for all known > issues. The release candidate should then turn into the final release after a > brief sanity check. There must not be any changes from release candidate to > release. If it turns out that we really messed up badly, we'll have another RC > + release. I totally agree with this. And this is what I have tried to do. With 5.10 this worked already quite well but still there is room for improvements: If we found some new blocker from RC(n) we should fix just it and nothing else. And then release RC n+1. And as I propose we should release RC immediately when blockers are fixed. And that's why I don't like to plan the date for it because it seems to slow down the process with fixing the release blockers. > > I think this would help us get releases out quickly. It would mean, we really > need to play by our own rules: > after alpha: no more API changes, unless fixing new API. All new features > must be _complete_, with no known big bugs (or thrown out again). I am > certainly guilty of breaking this rule in the past and delaying releases... > after beta: no more changes, except for fixes for release blockers release > candidate: no more changes, unless brown paper bag issues are found Yes please :D Br, Jani > > Cheers, > Frederik > > > > > > > But this change doesn't meant we need to stop calling those releases > > as Alpha or Betas so we can continue labeling those as earlier. > > > > br, > > Jani > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Development <development-bounces+jani.heikkinen=qt.io@qt- > > > project.org> On Behalf Of Lars Knoll > > > Sent: maanantai 16. huhtikuuta 2018 10.03 > > > To: Simon Hausmann <simon.hausm...@qt.io> > > > Cc: Qt development mailing list <development@qt-project.org> > > > Subject: Re: [Development] Qt 5.12 schedule proposal & proposal for > > > release process change > > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > From a releasing perspective I agree that the set we should update > > > our packages often. We should also stop delivering source only alpha > > > packages, and have binaries from the get go. > > > > > > But from a user perspective, I agree that it's good and important to > > > put a name to those releases so people know what to expect from them. > > > Snapshots as long as the packages are created from the dev branch, > > > then alpha, beta, RC and final. We could discuss whether we need the > > > alpha label, or whether we can go directly to beta, but I believe > > > that we do need the other tags. > > > > > > But I do agree with releasing packages as often as possible, and we > > > should have them already before FF from the dev branch (if possible). > > > > > > So I’d propose to have our packages updated often. But we do keep > > > the ‘snapshot’, ‘alpha’, ‘beta’ and ‘RC’ tags. > > > > > > - Snapshot packages from the dev branch > > > - FF and branching occur together and packages are getting the > > > ‘alpha’ tag > > > - Agree that we should start with the API review immediately. > > > - Beta once API review is done > > > - RC once we have the release branch and all currently known > > > blockers are fixed > > > > > > That should be pretty close to what Jani described, only that we > > > keep the tags for our users. > > > > > > Cheers, > > > Lars > > > > > > > On 16 Apr 2018, at 08:43, Simon Hausmann <simon.hausm...@qt.io> > > > > > > wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > Same here. At first this seemed like a good idea, but it becomes > > > > awkward > > > > > > when you look at it from the dev workflow point of view: After > > > fixing a bug, what is the fix version? Reported in snapshot-24062918 > > > and fixed in snapshot-14072918? That sounds like it would create a > > > mess in JIRA.> > > > > Unless of course the task of assigning the fix version field was > > > > automated. > > > > > > > > Simon > > > > > > > > On 16. Apr 2018, at 08:12, Alex Blasche <alexander.blas...@qt.io> > wrote: > > > >>> -----Original Message----- > > > >>> > > > >>>> On Thursday, 12 April 2018 01:42:29 PDT Jani Heikkinen wrote: > > > >>>> And at this same time I want to propose that we stop delivering > > > >>>> alpha or beta releases and just do snapshots instead. > > > >>>> Publishing regular snapshots should be done until we are ready > > > >>>> for RC. That because I don't see that much need for those > > > >>>> anymore. Those are nowadays kind of milestones and in my > > > >>>> opinion makes whole process a bit unclear/difficult (we don't > > > >>>> have very good definitions for Alpha and Beta > > > >>> > > > >>> releases). > > > >>> > > > >>> Yes we do. > > > >>> > > > >>> Alpha means feature complete, asking for feedback on the API and > > > >>> new functionality. > > > >>> > > > >>> Beta means implementation complete, asking for feedback on the > > > >>> quality of the implementation, seeking bugs and regressions to > > > >>> be fixed. > > > >>> > > > >>> RC means we've fixed everything we knew. > > > >> > > > >> I wholeheartedly agree with Thiago. The distinction may not make > > > >> a > > > > > > difference from the release team perspective but it makes a world of > > > difference for developers (who have different limitations for each > > > step) and the world as they can decide how bleeding edge the code is > > > that they want to test. > > > > > > >> I have a problem with the motivation behind this suggestion too > > > >> (don't > > > > > > understand it). The naming makes no difference for you as release > > > manager (afaict just a label). Why suggesting it aka what do you > > > want to gain by doing snapshots only? > > > > > > >> -- > > > >> Alex > > > >> > > > >> _______________________________________________ > > > >> Development mailing list > > > >> Development@qt-project.org > > > >> http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Development mailing list > > > > Development@qt-project.org > > > > http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Development mailing list > > > Development@qt-project.org > > > http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Development mailing list > > Development@qt-project.org > > http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development > > > _______________________________________________ > Development mailing list > Development@qt-project.org > http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development _______________________________________________ Development mailing list Development@qt-project.org http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/development