when to make a release of a branch

[David Crossley <cr...@apache.org>]

Ross Gardler wrote:
> Johannes Schaefer wrote:
> >I was wondering if updates to released versions get "built"
> >and result in a new "binary" to download.
> >
> >I do *not* mean plugins here (see discussion below),
> >I mean changes to forrest core.
> 
> Ahhhh... I musinderstood.
> 
> >Other OO projects do so, e.g. if there is a security issue
> >(e.g. Firefox 1.0.7, then 1.5).
> 
> Yes, the key point is thet there needs to be a compelling reason to do 
> it. There is considerable effort involved with doing a release it is not 
> simply a case of packaging and making it available for download.

Yes, big effort. It also needs the full testing
and vote process and co-operation of the PMC.
It would not be as bad as doing a major release
(e.g. 0.8) but still a lot of effort. [1] [2]

> >When should such an update be done?
> >For critical bugs? After each "minor" comitt (like mine today)?
> 
> My opinion would be critical bugs. Minor commits would wait until the 
> next "major" release.

Another reason might be that we take too long
to do the next major release, or strike a big
impediment. Like Ross, i would rather put the effort
into getting 0.8 out.

> Of course, if an individual dev has a personal/business reason for doing 
> a release and they are willing to put the effort in, it is unlikely that 
> anyone would object.

There is an alternative, if your clients cannot manange
to use svn to keep up-to-date with the branch.

If any developer (not just committer) needs to, then
they can package the product themselves. Don't call it a
product of our project. It is just some private distribution.

Just follow the procedure in [1], but build a private package
giving it a good name, e.g. forrest-0.7.1-dev-20051221-r358425.zip
There are a lot of steps that you can leave out, which should
be obvious.

Alternatively you might get away with just zipping
up the contents of your current forrest_07_branch
working copy of svn.

> However, most devs (well, only me for certain) 
> would prefer to focus on 0.8 rather than spend time on a 0.7.1 release
> 
> (unless there is a critical issue involved).

Me too. With a small project we need to focus on trunk.

[1] etc/RELEASE_PROCESS.txt
[2] http://forrest.apache.org/guidelines.html#actions

We really need to document this. I made some links to
similar email discussion:
http://forrest.apache.org/guidelines.html#develop

-David