On 12/4/14, 5:51 AM, "Bertrand Delacretaz" <bdelacre...@apache.org> wrote:
>On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 2:03 AM, Justin Mclean <jus...@classsoftware.com> >wrote: >> ...I'd just like it add that it only come up as an issue as some PMC >>members considered spelling >> issues a "blocker" for release candidates. I'm not sure if they still >>consider that to be the case.... > >Based on http://www.apache.org/foundation/voting.html you cannot have >a blocker for a release - if the majority approval says the release >should go out, it goes out. > >Now, of course, the PMC should strive to take -1 on release votes into >account, but maybe they do that for the next release, especially if >you release early and often or on a set cadence. For more context, Justin is referring to two different incidents. The first one was when we decided to add a new “all caps” file called “CONTRIBUTING" to our release packages. In examining the package, I found the file was misspelled as “CONTRIBITING” and felt that because it was in the top-level listing it would be worth spelling that correctly. In the second incident involving a different release, I discovered that “Apache” was misspelled as “Apche”. To me, those are worth fixing before releasing. So would any known misspelling of product names and people’s names. We should fix obvious gaffes when we find them, and be respectful to organizations and people. But if a less obvious spelling error gets released and noticed later, no big deal, we just fix it for the next release. Spelling errors are not all of equal importance. It so happened in both incidents that enough folks agreed with me and thus Justin was unable to get enough +1 votes to release that particular RC. So I didn’t block it with a -1 vote. After all, the voting rules don’t allow it. The simple fact was that more folks agreed with me. That’s one of the reasons I like the new “less-RC” process. There is far less overhead to fixing such a problem. I can now just fix the spelling error I found before we get around to voting. Sure if someone made a last minute change just before the RC was cut and vote started I might ask for another RC if it is obvious or prominent, but that should be rare. -Alex
