Short version: I vote to hold the security patch until after RC and then 
apply it only to trunk.

On 16/06/12 16:45, Christian Mueller wrote:
> Waiting 4-6 weeks is no problem

It is worse than that. To clarify, when the RC is made, we will also be 
branching 2.2.x. Only essential bugfixes will made before 2.2.0 is 
released. New functionality will only be backported after testing on 
trunk and then only if low risk and with a PSC vote. Major refactoring 
is not allowed on stable.
http://geoserver.org/display/GEOS/GSIP+77+-+Time+boxed+release+model

I voted +1 for GSIP 77.

> To close this issue, I need a decision of the PSC.

I vote to hold the security patch until after RC; this means that it 
will miss 2.2.x and only be applied to 2.3.x (trunk). Once it has been 
shown to work reliably on trunk, it might backported at some future 
date, but not if it requires major refactoring.

Yes, this means that a lot of the new security functionality will suck 
on 2.2.0 and later stable.

The purpose of the stable branch is to maintain stability, that it, to 
avoid introducing unpleasant surprises for users, such as new bugs, 
functional changes, or file format incompatibilities. It does not mean 
that stable is bug free, just that the behaviour of the software is 
known. Users should be able to upgrade a stable production system to a 
later patch version of the stable branch and have a reasonable 
expectation that nothing that was working will break. While security 
will be pretty hurty, that is just tough. It will be no worse than 
before your patch. New code equals new bugs. That is just the way it is. 
Stable is where we avoid adding bugs. While some users will feel pain, 
the herd will settle on one stable code base and learn how to cope.

Releasing more often is a good practice. Andrea has done a great job on 
GSIP 77 and it would be a pity for our good intentions to be derailed so 
soon. No dessert until we eat all our vegetables.

- Holding off releases has left stable so far behind app-schema on trunk 
that we have for over a year been warning users to never use 2.1.x for 
app-schema.

- I know at least two other developers who have work that cannot go in 
RC and must go on trunk. Delaying RC blocks their work.

Note that throughout, references to security mean security subsystem 
changes. Vulnerabilities to external attack (perhaps spelled 
"SECURITY"?) must always be patched on stable and trunk as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

-- 
Ben Caradoc-Davies <[email protected]>
Software Engineer
CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering
Australian Resources Research Centre

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