On Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 4:00 PM, Patricia Shanahan <p...@acm.org> wrote:
> > > On 10/24/2017 2:34 PM, Kay Schenk wrote: > >> >> On 10/24/2017 01:25 PM, Andrea Pescetti wrote: >> >>> I'm starting a short series of occasional posts to capture the current >>> collective state of mind on the next release. I'll float them here for >>> refinement or lazy consensus, and then we may want to reuse this text in >>> wiki or blog posts to avoid repeating the same concepts over and over. >>> >>> Let's start with branches. >>> >>> We all wish 4.1.4 to be the last 4.1.x release. >>> >>> We currently have an AOO415 branch at http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/o >>> penoffice/branches/AOO415/ ; this branch is a copy of AOO414 (that >>> resulted in OpenOffice 4.1.4). The AOO415 branch will result in a release >>> ONLY if we have some important bug fixes to release and trunk is not ready >>> yet. No new features, even small enhancements, are added to it. No commits >>> to AOO415 happen without appropriate mailing list discussions (dev or >>> security, depending on cases). >>> >>> Trunk is where all development happens. It will be branched for a new >>> release (like, an AOO420 branch - name still provisional) when the code is >>> mature: beta or even RC. Until then, we simply keep working on trunk as we >>> are doing now. >>> >>> In case we need to commit to a branch, any changes are still committed >>> to trunk first and then merged to branches using SVN merge in all >>> situations when this is possible (i.e., when there are no merge conflicts). >>> The mergeinfo for AOO414 and AOO415 isn't clear, so we'll have to make sure >>> that trunk contains all fixes done there (or equivalent in case of >>> conflicts) and, done that, we commit to AOO415 only if: >>> 1. The fix is important and agreed upon on the relevant list >>> 2. The commit is done with "svn merge" starting from a trunk commit >>> >>> This will ensure that we can shift the focus to trunk while still >>> keeping a branch that remains ready for a quick release if needed. If we >>> are never in this situation, the next release will be from the current >>> trunk and AOO415 will never result in a release. >>> >>> Regards, >>> Andrea. >>> >> >> Would it be more clear to just remove the AOO415 branch and only >> re-instate it if needed (hopefully not). I don't see anything in AOO415 >> that wasn't included in AOO414. >> >> > The decision to keep the 4.1.5 branch around came out of a discussion on > the security mailing list. The potential problem is that someday we may > be faced with a bug for which we need to get a fix out into the field as > soon as possible. > > Because of the sheer size of AOO, it takes time to get set up for a > release. The idea is to do as much as we can to prepare without > committing to a release. I have a check-out of AOO415 built. As the > version number changes get incorporated I'll update and rebuild. Not > having to wait for the branch to be prepared, check it out, and do a > full build reduces by about a day the time it would take from knowing a > fix to having it built, tested, and checked in. > > I would like to make this an on-going policy. As soon as we ship 4.2.0, > we remove the AOO415 branch but create AOO421, identical except for > version numbers to AOO420, ready in case of an emergency fix. > Thanks for this explanation. It makes good sense. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MzK "Only the truth will save you now." -- Ensei Tankado, "Digital Fortress"
