[DISCUSSION] Updating the hbase shell to Ruby 2.y

[Sean Busbey <bu...@cloudera.com>]

Hi Folks!

Over on dev@hbase we'd like to update the version of JRuby used in the
`hbase shell` command[1]. Right now, the shell runs as Ruby 1.8, which
has been EOM for a very long time (depending on which community you
ask). We could maintain running Ruby 1.8 compatibility for a bit
longer by upgrading our JRuby from the EOM 1.6 to 1.7, however that
version is also hitting EOM this year[2].

Instead, we'd like to upgrade to the latest release of JRuby, which
only runs in Ruby 2.y mode. I believe it defaults to Ruby 2.3
compatibility[3]. Currently, our plan is to do this for both HBase
2.0.0 and for some future version of HBase 1.y (likely 1.4).

While the normal downstream promises allow for this kind of change in
a minor release for 'operational compatibility'[4], we recognize that
going across 2 major Ruby versions (1.8 -> 1.9, and 1.9 -> 2.2) might
be a considerable burden.

What do folks who are running HBase now think? Do you have a
significant body of Ruby 1.8 tooling in place? Is planning for the end
of this year (likely the soonest a 1.4 release will happen) enough for
updating it?


[1]: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HBASE-16196
[2]: https://twitter.com/jruby/status/751150368839589888
[3]: http://jruby.org/2016/05/27/jruby-9-1-2-0.html
[4]: http://hbase.apache.org/book.html#hbase.versioning.post10

-- 
busbey