Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items - Council meeting 2016-08-14

[Brian Dolbec]

On Thu, 4 Aug 2016 11:24:43 -0500
William Hubbs <williamh@g.o> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 04, 2016 at 04:15:14PM +0200, Kristian Fiskerstrand wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > the Gentoo Council will meet again on Sunday, August 14 at 19:00 UTC
> > in #gentoo-council on FreeNode.
> >
> > Please reply to this message on the gentoo-project list with any
> > items the council should put on its agenda to discuss or vote on.
>
> I feel that our stable tree is so far behind on all
> architectures that we are doing our stable users a disservice, so I
> would like to open up a discussion here, and maybe some policy changes
> at the next meeting.
>
> Ultimately, I think we need some form of automated stabilization, e.g.
> if a package version sits in ~ for 30 days and there are no blockers
> at that point, the new version should go automatically to stable on
> all architectures where there is a previous stable version.
>
> I realize that automation is going to take a lot of work, so in the
> meantime, I would like to discuss changes to our stabilization
> policies that will get new versions of packages to stable faster.
>
> The first issue is maintainers not filing stable requests for new
> versions of packages in a timely manor. I'm not sure how to get around
> this, but I feel that once a version of a package is stable, we are
> doing a disservice to our stable users by not keeping stable as
> current as possible.  I am as bad as anyone; it is easy to forget to
> file stable requests until someone pings me or files the request
> themselves.
>
> I have heard other maintainers say specifically that they do not file
> stable requests unless a user asks them to, but Again, I do not feel
> comfortable with this arrangement if there is an old version of the
> package in stable. Users shouldn't have to ask for newer versions to
> be stabilized; this should be driven by the maintainers.
>
> The second issue is slow arch teams. Again, by not moving packages
> from ~ to stable, we are doing a disservice to our stable users.
>
> I can think of two ways we can improve our situation.
>
> We can allow maintainers to stabilize new versions of certain types of
>  packages on all arches where there is a previous version of the
> package stable without filing stable requests. This would take a
> significant load off of the arch teams.
>
> For packages that do not fit the first group, we could require stable
> requests, but allow maintainers to stabilize the new versions after a
> timeout (I would propose 30 days).
>
> What do folks think?
>
> William
>

William, there is a GSOC project underway that is creating an automated
testing system as a helper and auto-stabilization system.  You should
read over the gentoo-soc list and/or talk to the mentors and student
doing the project.

student: Pallav Agarwal <pallavagarwal07@×××××.com>
Mentors: Sébastien Fabbro <bicatali@g.o>
         Nitin Agarwal <nitinagarwal3006@×××××.com>

-- 
Brian Dolbec <dolsen>