Re: API changes in unstable branches

[Davide Giannella <da...@apache.org>]

On 25/05/2017 13:13, Robert Munteanu wrote:
> I'd like to better understand what our policy on backwards
> compatibility at the package level is. For OAK-6265 I would remove two
> already exported methods which means that the exported version for
> org.apache.jackrabbit.oak.spi.mount would move from 3.0.0 to 4.0.0 .
>
> Is that acceptable for an unstable release? Or should I rather
> deprecate those and keep backwards compatibility?

I think it's fair to deprecate for one stable release and delete them in
the next one. So give some numbers: if the API is delivered with 1.6 I
would deprecate for 1.8 and delete for 1.10.

That would allow the consumers of the project to easily migrate any code
base that relies on it.

However I don't think we have a specific policy for this and in the end
we can simply delete and change the API from 1.6 to 1.8.

Davide