Re: [DISCUSS] Apache ORC Release Cadence

[Dongjoon Hyun <do...@apache.org>]

According to the discussion, we seem to achieve two things.

1. Keep long term support of released versions as a library
2. Deliver new features more swiftly (if possible)

Although we are going to follow semantic versioning, 
we may want to consider backporting differently per modules
to achieve both goals in some way. 

For example, `tool` and `benchmark` module are relatively safer
in terms of backporting. And, they are used as a final CLI instead of library.

The following is one of the examples.

ORC-1012: Support specifying columns in orc-scan

Dongjoon.

On 2021/10/29 14:26:53, Dongjoon Hyun <do...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> Thank you, William. Yes, it does indeed.
> 
> BTW, I'd like to cut 1.7.1 and 1.6.12 next week. I'll start another thread
> for that.
> 
> Dongjoon.
> 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 28, 2021 at 11:09 PM William Hyun <wi...@apache.org> wrote:
> 
> > Hello All!
> >
> > I believe that the feature release for ORC is slowing down because of the
> > lack of new features.
> > If we have meaningful new features, we can strive for annual releases.
> > However, Apache Hive and Flink still use 1.5.x (EOL) versions.
> > We had better help them migrate to 1.7.x first before 1.8.0.
> >
> > Bests,
> > William
> >
> > On 2021/10/26 05:36:41, Dongjoon Hyun <do...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Thank you, Yiqun.
> > >
> > > Yes, it's `alpha` or `preview` releases are also possible for the
> > > standalone customers.
> > >
> > > One problem might be that Apache ORC is a library whose majority of
> > > customers consume it
> > > usually via the Apache downstream
> > > project(Spark/Hive/Flink/Iceberg/Arrow/Druid).
> > > In this case, it's hard to reach out to the customer because
> > > `alpha` version is not acceptable for downstream PRs.
> > >
> > > Thank you again for your opinions, Yiqun and Pavan.
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, Oct 21, 2021 at 8:20 PM Yiqun Zhang <gu...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Thanks Dongjoon for initiating this discussion.
> > > >
> > > > I think the current release cadence is great, 1-2 years for a major
> > release
> > > > and we maintain each major release for about 3 years so we can make
> > sure we
> > > > maintain a consistent number of releases.
> > > >
> > > > https://github.com/apache/orc/pull/936#issuecomment-944017204
> > > > My opinion in response to this discussion is that we could add preview
> > > > releases, such as 1.8.0-alpha, which could be released at a cadence
> > that
> > > > could be adjusted as incompatible new features accumulate. To avoid new
> > > > interfaces taking too long to come out, it is also convenient for
> > users to
> > > > understand and test in advance, and we can give lower priority to
> > fixing
> > > > its issues than the major version.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > > Yiqun Zhang
> > > >
> > > > Dongjoon Hyun <do...@gmail.com> 于2021年10月17日周日 上午11:57写道：
> > > >
> > > > > Hi, All.
> > > > >
> > > > > There were some questions and discussion about Apache ORC release
> > cadence
> > > > > at our GitHub PR. I want to share it with you and get your opinion
> > on it.
> > > > >
> > > > > https://github.com/apache/orc/pull/936#issuecomment-944017204
> > > > >
> > > > > According to our release page, Apache ORC release cadence requires
> > > > > one or two years for the next minor version.
> > > > >
> > > > > https://orc.apache.org/docs/releases.html
> > > > >     - 1.4.0: 2017-05-08
> > > > >     - 1.5.0: 2018-05-14 (About 1 year and 6 days)
> > > > >     - 1.6.0: 2019-09-03 (About 1 year and 4 month)
> > > > >     - 1.7.0: 2021-09-15 (About 2 years and 12 days)
> > > > >     - 1.8.0: 2023-09-15 (About 2 years?)
> > > > >
> > > > > Apache ORC release cadence is also related to the EOL of the old
> > > > releases.
> > > > > For example,
> > > > >     - 1.5.x was maintained for 40 months and was archived on
> > 2021-09-15.
> > > > >     - 1.6.x EOL is expected on 2022-09-03 if we maintain it for 3
> > years.
> > > > >     - 1.7.x EOL is expected on 2024-09-15 if we maintain it for 3
> > years.
> > > > >
> > > > > What is your expectation on Apache ORC release cadence?
> > > > >
> > > > > Dongjoon
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
>