[ovs-dev] [PATCH] release-process.md: Document OVS release process and propose a schedule.

[Ben Pfaff]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 10:00:22AM -0400, Russell Bryant wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 1:58 PM, Ben Pfaff <blp at ovn.org> wrote:
> 
> > This document has two different kinds of text:
> >
> >    - The first sections of the document, "Release Strategy" and "Release
> >      Numbering", describe what we've already been doing for most of the
> >      history of Open vSwitch.  If there is anything surprising in them,
> >      then it's because our process has not been transparent enough, and not
> >      because we're making a change.
> >
> >    - The final section of the document, "Release Scheduling", is a proposal
> >      for current and future releases.  We have not had a regular release
> >      schedule in the past, but it seems important to have one in the
> >      future, so this section requires review and feedback from everyone in
> >      the community.
> I think this is a great step forward.  Thank you!

Thanks for the review.

> One topic that could be added to this document is discussion of how long
> each release branch is maintained.  LTS is defined in FAQ.md, but it could
> be defined in this document now.  How an LTS branch is chosen, and the
> maintenance difference between LTS and non-LTS would also be good topics to
> cover.

I forgot that the FAQ talked about releases.  I'm appending an
incremental that I will fold into this patch.

It is a good idea to describe LTS releases, but I don't have answers for
the questions you ask.  Here are some thoughts about principles we've
considered before:

    * We try to avoid making releases that include disruptive internal
      changes LTS, because they are harder to support.

    * It is good to make LTS releases at least every 2 years or so,
      because it is useful to distributions and other downstreams, but
      not much more often than that, because it is more work to maintain
      multiple upstreams.

    * In the past we have maintained a given LTS until we release the
      next LTS.  This is probably too vague and may not be long enough
      in any case.

Anyone want to suggest what we should do?

> Acked-by: Russell Bryant <russell at ovn.org>

Thanks.  I'm going to let the discussion develop for a while before I
push anything, because I want to see a semblance of consensus on the
schedule.

--8<--------------------------cut here-------------------------->8--

diff --git a/FAQ.md b/FAQ.md
index 063bd70..290e66c 100644
--- a/FAQ.md
+++ b/FAQ.md
@@ -125,13 +125,16 @@ Releases
 ### Q: What does it mean for an Open vSwitch release to be LTS (long-term support)?
 
 A: All official releases have been through a comprehensive testing
-   process and are suitable for production use.  Planned releases will
-   occur several times a year.  If a significant bug is identified in an
+   process and are suitable for production use.  Planned releases
+   occur twice a year.  If a significant bug is identified in an
    LTS release, we will provide an updated release that includes the
    fix.  Releases that are not LTS may not be fixed and may just be
    supplanted by the next major release.  The current LTS release is
    2.3.x.
 
+   For more information on the Open vSwitch release process, please
+   see [release-process.md].
+
 ### Q: What Linux kernel versions does each Open vSwitch release work with?
 
 A: The following table lists the Linux kernel versions against which the
@@ -2140,3 +2143,4 @@ http://openvswitch.org/
 [OPENFLOW-1.1+.md]:OPENFLOW-1.1+.md
 [INSTALL.DPDK.md]:INSTALL.DPDK.md
 [Tutorial.md]:tutorial/Tutorial.md
+[release-process.md]:Documentation/release-process.md