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This summary was written by Donnie Berkholz, so don't give me any credit |
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for it... ;] |
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|
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You can find the complete log at: |
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http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/meetings/20080123_initial_2008.0.txt |
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|
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2008.0 release |
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-------------- |
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|
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Tentative schedule (dates may change): |
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Feb. 1 Snapshot of the tree taken |
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Feb. 25 Docs due to GDP from release coordinators |
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Feb. 25 Snapshot frozen for beta |
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Feb. 29 Docs finalized |
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Mar. 3 Beta1 released |
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Mar. 14 Final upload |
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Mar. 17 Release |
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|
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To make it easier for the release engineering team to collaborate, |
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releng lead Chris Gianelloni (wolf31o2) wants all architectures to build |
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their releases on public developer machines. This also means that if an |
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architecture's release coordinator can't finish the release, anyone else |
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can pick up the work and continue. |
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|
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The releng team plans a few changes to profiles. Moving to multiparent |
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profiles will significantly reduce the profiles' maintenance effort and |
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code. It may happen for 2008.0; Chris said, "I am not sure that we'll |
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have time to do the profile switching, but I'm going to try to come up |
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with it. The plan will be to create 'normal' 2008.0 profiles, and I'll |
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work on making them multi-parent." Another suggested change to profiles |
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is the creation of an all-new multiparent subprofile, optimized for |
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Gentoo development. The 'developer' profile would be based on the |
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desktop profile with an additional set of FEATURES useful to developers. |
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|
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Chris also proposed changes to the release process, including when |
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profiles are created for future releases. "As soon as we finish up a |
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release," he said, "I'd like to go ahead and create the new release |
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stuff in the repos." That includes new catalyst spec files in the releng |
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repository, a new development profile, and possible changes to the |
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handbook. Making this change means work can immediately start instead of |
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waiting until the next release cycle, and it's also useful for automated |
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builds. |
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|
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Public beta releases make up a major component of the new plans. Chris |
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hopes beta releases will increase community participation as well as the |
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quality of the final release. These feature-complete public betas will |
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require the earlier development of release materials. To ensure |
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sufficient time exists for testers to take advantage of the beta, a |
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mandatory 2-week testing period will follow the beta release. |
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|
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A comprehensive testing checklist will be developed on the gentoo-releng |
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mailing list, as will a list of which details of testers' machines and |
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environments they should turn in to developers. Since in the past, |
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testers often provided insufficient information to releng developers |
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because their instructions weren't specific enough, a new form will |
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include all of the required questions and details. "Sadly you almost |
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want a beta that phones home as to what it was successfully run on," |
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said Tom Gall (tgall). Christian Faulhammer (opfer) suggested using a |
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hardware reporting tool such as app-admin/hwreport. |
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|
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Finally, Chris wants to make himself less of a single point of failure. |
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Conversion of the releng repository to SVN and maintenance of a shared |
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release checklist there will help, he said, so everyone can make updates |
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as they get things done. |
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|
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A question about security came from Tobias Klausmann (Blackb|rd), who |
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asked how to avoid the same problem that hit 2007.1. "Part of the |
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problem last time was that Chris was trying to update the snapshot for |
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*every* security bug," said x86 release coordinator Andrew Gaffney |
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(agaffney), "instead of just the ones that affected the media." |
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|
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|
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Automated builds |
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---------------- |
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|
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Branching profiles and specs for the next release early will enable the |
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releng team to begin automated and regular internal release builds. |
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"They'll check out the SVN for the new release and use the new dev |
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profile," Chris said, "so we find problems and fix them year-round |
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instead of just during the release cycle." |
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|
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Making these internal release builds publicly accessible can be done by |
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individual architecture teams, but Chris said the releng team won't |
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distribute them automatically. This could help people with architectures |
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that require hardware support nonexistent in the last release. |
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|
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"My long-term goal for the automatic builds is for us to be able to use |
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them as our initial beta," Chris said. "We pick one that's as close to |
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release quality as possible, release it as beta, *then* start the |
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release cycle." |
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|
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|
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|
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How do we involve the community more? |
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------------------------------------- |
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|
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|
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Some of the most popular suggestions--addition of the public beta, |
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letting users help with beta testing, and explicitly asking for |
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feedback--were already proposed for other goals like improving release |
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quality. They may also help involve the community. |
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|
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Another popular idea was creating a survey to ask users for the top |
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features they want in the next release. This might happen with simple |
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infrastructure like email or the forums, since Gentoo doesn't yet have |
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anything better. |
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|
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The last idea for getting users involved is to simply do a good job of |
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announcing the beta. Gentoo users have many places to get information |
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(GMN, forums, website, planet, many mailing lists), so getting news |
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about the beta to anywhere more users see it will require wide |
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dissemination of the announcement. |
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|
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In addition to users, the releng team wants to get more developers |
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involved. Donnie Berkholz (dberkholz) suggested appealing to their |
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motivations for being a developer in the first place by doing things |
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like testing their own packages on the LiveCD. And Chris also wants to |
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get developers more actively involved rather than just being consumers. |
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|
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|
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Other topics |
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------------ |
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|
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Using full-fledged project-management software like dotproject was |
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proposed by developer Preston Cody (codeman). Chris said he just used a |
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spreadsheet but wanted something more collaborative, so Preston |
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suggested Google Docs. For now, the release checklist will live in SVN. |
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|
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Switching away from the Cafepress store was also brought up. Cafepress |
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doesn't produce DVDs, but the releng team wants to encourage LiveDVD use |
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because they have so much more content. Chris is researching some |
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alternate stores. |
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|
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Regarding hardware, most architectures have working, hosted development |
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machines. The main amd64 dev box, poseidon, could use some faster hard |
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drives for the automated builds. |
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|
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Since constant security vulnerabilities forcibly canceled the 2007.1 |
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release, improving how the releng team deals with them was a concern. |
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The main change will be a closer collaboration between the security team |
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and the releng team. "Releng is going to be treated just like an arch, |
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with a security liaison and everything," Chris said, "and we'll be added |
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to CC just like any other architecture. Before, I just found out about |
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stuff when either someone told me or when it hit the arch aliases I was |
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on ... neither of which was very good for planning." |
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|
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-- |
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Chris Gianelloni |
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Release Engineering Strategic Lead |
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Games Developer |
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-- |
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gentoo-releng@l.g.o mailing list |