master == development :-) Thanks for bring this up for discussion.
On Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 7:50 PM Jason Lowe-Power <ja...@lowepower.com> wrote: > > Hi all, > > As many of you have seen on gem5-dev, we are going to be adding a > "stable" version of gem5. Below is the current proposal. There are a > couple of points below where there has not been general consensus > reached. We would appreciate feedback *from everyone in the community* > on the points where a decision hasn't been made below. gem5 is a > community-driven project, and we need feedback to make sure we're > making community-focused decisions. > > We will be introducing a new "stable" branch type to gem5. We are > doing this for the following reasons: > - Provide a way for developers to communicate major changes to the > code. We will be providing detailed release notes for each stable > release. > - Increase our test coverage. At each stable release, we will test a > large number of "common" benchmarks and configurations and publicize > the current state of gem5. > - Provide a way for researchers to communicate to the rest of the > community information about their simulation infrastructure (e.g., in > a paper you can say which version of gem5 you used). > > On the stable version of gem5, we will provide bugfixes until the > next release, but we will not make any API changes or add new > features. > > We would like your feedback on the following two questions: > > **Which branch should be default?** > > We can either have the master branch in git be the "stable" or the > "development" branch. If master is the stable branch, then it's easier > for users to get the most recent stable branch. If master is the > development branch, it's more familiar and easier for most developers. > Either way, we will be updating all of the documentation to make it > clear. > > Please let us know which you prefer by replying "I think master should > be stable" or "I think master should be development". > > **How often should we create a new gem5 release?** > > We can have a gem5 release once per year (likely in April) or three > times per year (April, August, and December). Once per year means that > if you use the stable branch you will get updates less frequently. > Three times per year will mean there are more releases to choose from > (but a newer release should always be better). On the development > side, I don't think one will be more work than the other. Once per > year means more backporting, and three times per year means more > testing and time spent on releases. > > Please let us know which you prefer by replying "I think gem5 should > be released once per year" or "I think gem5 should be released three > times per year." > > > > > A couple of notes to everyone who's been following the discussion on > the gem5-dev mailing list: > - We have dropped the proposal for major vs minor releases. Note that > there was some pushback on having only major releases when this was > proposed on the gem5 roadmap, but it sounded like the consensus was to > drop minor releases for now. > - We will still allow feature branches *in rare circumstances*. This > will be by request only (send mail to gem5-dev if you would like to > discuss adding a new branch), and the goal will be integration within > a few months. All code review will still happen in the open on gerrit. > The benefits will be > 1) rebases won't be required as you can just make changes to the head > of the branch > 2) many features take more than a few months to implement, so if it's > not ready by a release it can be pushed to the next > 3) large changes won't be hidden in AMD or Arm-specific repositories > and *anyone* will be able to request a branch. > > Thanks everyone for the discussions so far! It would be most useful to > hear back by the end of the week. However, I don't expect any concrete > actions will be taken until after the holidays. > > Cheers, > Jason > _______________________________________________ > gem5-dev mailing list > gem5-dev@gem5.org > http://m5sim.org/mailman/listinfo/gem5-dev _______________________________________________ gem5-dev mailing list gem5-dev@gem5.org http://m5sim.org/mailman/listinfo/gem5-dev
