This is a great discussion, thanks Mike for writing down TBB release process.
I think is very important to start being more strategical on how we plan the different projects releases. Of course this doesn't mean we have to force a big change right away, that is why the discussion is important so we can figure out a good plan on how to do it.
Let's see our options first:
*
match Core Tor release 0.2.7 with TB 5.0-x release
o
pros: PT and control port compatibilities
o
cons: probably will have to cut in half the number of features for 0.2.7 release (should analyze how that can affect sponsor deliverables we are committed to)
*
target 0.2.6 for TB 5.0-x stable, and aim for 0.2.7 to go out in the next TB series
o
pros?
o
cons?
Did I missed anything?
On 03/13/2015 07:00 AM, Nick Mathewson wrote:
On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 11:16 PM, Mike Perry mikeperry@torproject.org wrote:
As fair warning, I am very likely to decide that it will be better to ship 0.2.7.x in TBB 5.0-stable on Aug 11th, as I suspect that the risk from things like PT compatibility and control port compatibility issues will actually make a rollback to 0.2.6 more risky on balance than sticking with 0.2.7.x.
Hm. In that case, maybe we should consider aiming to have 0.2.7.x become stable around the end of July instead?
That would require us to feature-freeze in mid-May, at the very latest. I'm not sure that gives us enough time to put out a solid release; we've never tried so tight a schedule before.
This time around, our schedule looked like this:
* Jun 18 -- Fork 0.2.5 as a place to put stuff that didn't fit in 0.2.4. * Sep 11 -- First rc for 0.2.5. * Oct 24 -- Stable release for 0.2.5 * Feb 2 -- Soft feature freeze for 0.2.6 * Feb 19 -- Hard feature freeze for 0.2.6 * Mar 9 -- First release candidate for 0.2.6 * Mar 20 (projected!) -- Stable release or second releasecandidate for 0.2.6
So if we aimed for a mid-May freeze, we would have to plan for a much smaller 0.2.7 than we had for future releases. (As it is, freezing 0.2.7 in August would still put it on a shorter timeline than we had for 0.2.6.)
It's not out of the question, and we should make sure we talk about it when we're doing bug triage for 0.2.7 with Isabela next week. But another possiblility that maybe we should consider is to target 0.2.6 for your 5.0-x stable, and aim for 0.2.7 to go out in the next TB series?
best wishes,