Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Arwed von Merkatz <v.merkatz AT gmx.net>]

On Fri, May 05, 2006 at 01:35:47PM -0500, Jeremy Blosser (emrys) wrote:
> On May 05, Arwed von Merkatz [v.merkatz AT gmx.net] wrote:
> > as the process of how to get fixes into stable(-rc) grimoire apparently
> > isn't clear to everyone, here's how I think the process should be.
> > This is mostly a draft to get comments, but we definitely need some
> > policy like this to ensure stable is as stable as we can get it.
> > This isn't really anything new, just a clarification of how the process
> > is supposed to work, extending it to security updates.
> > 
> > - a new flag "integrate to stable-rc" will get added to bugzilla
> > - bugs get filed against the highest grimoire in the stability range
> >   that they apply to, i.e. first to stable, then stable-rc, then test
> 
> I like this clarification, as I haven't been sure on it before.  Can we add
> something about how the fixed/verified/closed flags are to be used?  I
> think we have coommon practice of closing things when they reach the
> grimoire they were filed against, but I'm not sure that's written down.

Good point, I forgot adding that. Bugs are to be closed once the fix is
in the grimoire the are filed against. If a bug applies to stable-rc,
but was filed against test by the reporter, it should be changed to say
stable-rc for this reason.

> > - bugs get fixed _only_ in test grimoire as usual
> > - once they're fixed in test, the "fixed in lesser branch" flag is set
> >   to "+", and the "integrate to $BRANCH" flags are set to "?" for the
> >   branches they apply to
> > - one of the gatekeepers (currently Eric Sandall, Seth Woolley and
> >   myself) approves or denies the request(s) for integration, if it's
> >   denied, an explanation of the reasons is added to the bug 
> 
> Is the APL included in that like I am for other stuff Eric does?  I'm
> asking because I don't know... FWIW I don't really want to be a gatekeeper
> but will do it if required when none of the rest of you are available for
> some reason and it's something that can't wait for you.

I wanted to suggest you as a fourth gatekeeper, but if you don't really
want to do it, I'm sure we can find others. Having one or two more
gatekeepers is certainly a good idea.

> > - once the request is approved (flag set to "+"), it can be integrated
> >   to the branch for which it was approved, currently that integration
> >   can be done by anyone with access to those grimoires
> 
> I know we have an 'integrated to stable' flag as well, which I believe is
> to be set by whoever does the integration, correct?   Will we have one of
> those for 'integrated to stable-rc' as well?

Do we really need those flags? Once the bug is fixed in the grimoire it
was filed against the bug is resolved as FIXED anyway. The only use for
the flag would be if it was only integrated to one of the grimoires it
was flagged for.

> > I want the same process to be followed for security updates.
> > If a guru does some fixes without a bug report and wants those
> > integrated to stable-rc/stable, a new bug report should be filed for
> > that, stating the reasons for the request.
> > 
> > Yes, this does slow down getting bugfixes into stable-rc and stable, but
> > that's not a bad thing. We're working hard on getting stable to a really
> > stable state (and prometheus showed we still have quite a bit of work
> > ahead of us), so we should be really confident that no integration to
> > stable breaks stuff that previously worked. It's just a matter of
> > getting another pair of eyes to screen the changes right now, we'll
> > probably want to add some prometheus testing to that process in the
> > future though.
> > 
> > Any comments are welcome.

-- 
Arwed v. Merkatz                              Source Mage GNU/Linux developer
                                                    http://www.sourcemage.org