Hi Abhishek, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I understand your concern, and I agree that we should continue looking for ways to reduce the growing PR backlog.
One thing I'd like to clarify is that 4.23 is a regular feature release, with a primary focus on new features and improvements. Most bug-fix PRs are instead targeted for the 4.22.2.0 or 4.20.4.0 milestones, which are the next LTS releases. Regarding the PRs that were moved out of the 4.23.0 milestone, the main reason was not necessarily the risk of the changes themselves. Many of them were simply not ready for review and testing before the code freeze. According to our merge policy, every PR must be adequately reviewed and tested before it can be merged. If a PR is still work in progress, awaiting review, or has not yet been sufficiently validated, it cannot realistically be included in the release. The community also has limited QA resources. This is especially challenging for new features and large improvements, which typically require considerably more effort to review and test than bug fixes. As a result, some PRs had to be deferred even though they are valuable additions. The deferred PRs have been moved to the 4.24.0 milestone: https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/pulls?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Apr+milestone%3A4.24.0 Hopefully, this provides enough visibility for authors and reviewers to continue working on them early in the next development cycle. I agree that reducing the PR backlog is important, and I think the best way to achieve that is to encourage PR authors to get their changes ready for review and testing earlier in the release cycle, while also attracting more reviewers and testers from the community. Thanks again for raising the discussion. Kind regards, Wei On Thu, Jul 16, 2026 at 8:42 AM Abhishek Kumar <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Wei and other RMs, > > Thank you for the update and for all the effort that has gone into > preparing the release. > > While it will be great to have a stable 4.23.0 release soon, I was a > little disappointed to see a number of self-contained PRs and changes > moved out of the 4.23.0 milestone without any accompanying rationale. > By "self-contained," I mean changes that are largely isolated and do > not affect major existing CloudStack components. Since 4.23.0 is a > non-LTS release, I had hoped it would provide an opportunity to > include such changes, even if they carry a bit more risk than what > we'd typically consider for an LTS release. > > We currently have a backlog of over 260 open PRs, and I'm concerned > that if we continue to take this approach, it will become increasingly > difficult to make meaningful progress in reducing that backlog. > > These are just my personal thoughts, and I fully appreciate the effort > that goes into balancing stability with feature delivery. Looking > forward to the new release and the many exciting features it will > bring. > > Regards, > Abhishek > > On Tue, 14 Jul 2026 at 22:46, Wei ZHOU <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi All, > > > > The code freeze for CloudStack 4.23.0.0 is now in effect. The main branch > > will remain frozen until the 4.23.0.0 release. From this point onward, > only > > blocker, critical, and security fixes will be accepted for merging. > > > > We will now focus on stabilizing the main branch and preparing the > > 4.23.0.0-RC1 release. > > > > Thanks everyone for your contributions and support in getting us to this > > milestone! > > > > > > Kind regards, > > > > Wei > > > > > > > > On Mon, Jul 6, 2026 at 3:19 PM Wei ZHOU <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Hi All, > > > > > > After discussing this with several community members, we decided to > keep > > > the 4.23 open for one more week so that the outstanding PRs currently > under > > > testing or final review can be included in the 4.23.0.0 release. > > > > > > The updated timeline for 4.23.0 is as follows: > > > > > > - *Until July 10, 2026:* Accept new features, bug fixes, and > > > improvements. Features that are not ready to be merged by then will > be > > > moved to 4.24.0. > > > - *July 11, 2026:* Freeze the main branch. From this point onward, > > > only critical/blocker fixes will be accepted. > > > - *July 13, 2026, or once all blocker and critical issues have been > > > resolved (whichever is later):* Cut RC1 and begin the voting > process. > > > > > > > > > Thanks everyone for the understanding. > > > > > > Kind regards, > > > Wei > > > > > > > > > On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 2:47 PM Fabricio Duarte Junior < > > > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > > >> (forwarding from users@ to dev@) > > >> Hey all, > > >> > > >> After evaluating the current state and the remaining work for 4.23.0, > we > > >> have decided to > > >> postpone the release by another month. This is to ensure we can > deliver a > > >> more complete, > > >> polished, and well tested version. > > >> > > >> This postponement was primarily due to the following factors: > > >> > > >> - A good portion of the features and enhancements planned for 4.23.0 > [1] > > >> are still under > > >> development. > > >> - We had some delays in addressing security issues from previous > cycles. > > >> - There is a considerable number of security issues that we intend to > > >> solve on this release. > > >> - We still have a significant number of open pull requests waiting for > > >> review and testing. > > >> > > >> Hence, the updated timeline for 4.23.0 is the following: > > >> > > >> - Until July 3rd, 2026: accept new features, bug fixes, and > improvements. > > >> Features that are not > > >> yet ready for merge will be moved to 4.24.0. > > >> - July 4th, 2026: freeze the main branch. From this point onward, only > > >> critical/blocker fixes will be > > >> accepted. > > >> - July 6th, 2026, or once all blocker/critical/security issues are > > >> resolved (whichever is later): cut > > >> RC1 and start the voting process. > > >> > > >> We kindly ask for the community's support in reviewing and testing the > > >> PRs marked for 4.23.0. > > >> Additional help in these will be essential to keep the schedule on > track. > > >> > > >> Once again, thanks everyone for the understanding. > > >> > > >> On 2026/04/07 19:44:17 Wei ZHOU wrote: > > >> > Hi all, > > >> > > > >> > Due to several factors - such as the number of ongoing improvements > and > > >> new > > >> > features, the significant QA effort required, and pending security > > >> issues - > > >> > we have decided to adjust the timeline. All dates will be postponed > by > > >> one > > >> > month. > > >> > > > >> > The updated timeline of 4.23.0.0 release is as follows: > > >> > > > >> > - *Until June 1st, 2026*: Accept new features, bug fixes, and > > >> > improvements > > >> > - *June 2nd, 2026*: Freeze the main branch. From this point > onward, > > >> only > > >> > critical/blocker fixes will be accepted > > >> > - *June 3rd, 2026*, or once all blocker/critical/security issues > are > > >> > resolved (whichever is later): Cut RC1 and start the voting > process > > >> (allow > > >> > 1-3 weeks for additional RCs if necessary) > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > Thanks for your understanding and collaboration. > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > Kind regards, > > >> > Wei & Fabricio > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > On Tue, Feb 3, 2026 at 9:11 AM Wei ZHOU <[email protected]> > wrote: > > >> > > > >> > > Hi all, > > >> > > > > >> > > We are planning to work on a CloudStack 4.23.0 release. > > >> > > > > >> > > CloudStack 4.23.0 will be a Regular release [1], which introduces > new > > >> > > features > > >> > > and enhancements. It is targeted for users who require the newest > > >> > > features as > > >> > > early as possible and are able to upgrade when the releases are > > >> available. > > >> > > > > >> > > As discussed [2], I'll serve as the RM for the 4.23.0 release. > > >> Fabricio > > >> > > Duarte will > > >> > > act as the co-RM, assisting with triage, reviews, testing, merges, > > >> etc and > > >> > > release work. > > >> > > > > >> > > The timeline for this would be the following (Proposed by > Fabricio, > > >> > > thanks): > > >> > > > > >> > > - Until May 3rd 2026: accept new features, bug fixes and > improvements. > > >> > > - May 4th 2026: freeze the main branch. From this point, we would > only > > >> > > accept > > >> > > critical/blocker fixes. > > >> > > - May 11th 2026: cut RC1 and start the vote (1-3 weeks to work on > the > > >> next > > >> > > RCs if necessary). > > >> > > > > >> > > All open issues and PRs targeted for this release are tracked in > the > > >> > > 4.23.0 > > >> > > release milestone [3]. The design document of some features can be > > >> found > > >> > > at > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CLOUDSTACK/4.23+Design+Documents > > >> > > > > >> > > Please ping us (@weizhouapache or @winterhazel) on your PRs and > issues > > >> > > that > > >> > > are to be included in 4.23.0 on Github. Please let us know if you > > >> have any > > >> > > questions. > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > [1] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CLOUDSTACK/LTS > > >> > > [2] > https://lists.apache.org/thread/z7n339vcdym9f494ngb5pkzlxx8mjf2n > > >> > > [3] https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/milestone/42 > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > Kind regards, > > >> > > Wei > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > >> > > > >
