[Development] Focusing bug fixes to 5.9 branch and patch releases during H1/17

[Sean Harmer]

On Wednesday 15 February 2017 18:17:32 Thiago Macieira wrote:
> On quarta-feira, 15 de fevereiro de 2017 09:00:09 PST Tuukka Turunen wrote:
> > First I want to say that I am also very sorry that we need to skip 5.8.1.
> > Unfortunately I do not see any other approach that would allow us to: 1)
> > catch the delay caused by 5.8 being late (and 5.7 being late, and 5.6
> > being
> > late) and 2) enable implementation the much needed CI changes in good time
> > before Qt 5.10 feature freeze.
> 
> Here's a way:
> 
> Push the 5.9 and 5.10 timelines back. If necessary, unfreeze Qt 5.9.

Yes this is what I would vote for too. The 5.9 deadline is somewhat 
arbitrary/self imposed so does not have to be set in stone. If this has knock-
on effects for the CI upgrades, why can't these be done during the summer 
break by staggering the sysadmin vacations instead of all of them going off at 
the same time?

With this we could have a timeline something like this:

1) Release 5.8.1 asap. Hopefully this would go smoothly given it's a .1 
release.
2) Push 5.9.0 deadline to end of June but aim for earlier if the config system 
doesn't adversely affect the package generation.
3) Perform CI upgrades as soon as 5.9.0 is out (may require some juggling of 
vacation requests if 5.9.0 goes until end of June.
4) After summer vacation, start release process for 5.9.1 and 5.10.

This also helps mitigate the risk of something delaying the 5.9.0 release by 
getting a .1 release to the users in the interim.

Also, to allow others to help with the release process, could you explain 
where the main bottle neck is with the release process please? Is it the 
package generation itself? The smoke testing? Something else?

KDAB is willing to help where we can if it means we can get a 5.8.1 release in 
the hands of yours and our customers. But to be able to help, we need to know 
how we can.

Kind regards,

Sean
-- 
Dr Sean Harmer | sean.harmer at kdab.com | Managing Director UK
KDAB (UK) Ltd, a KDAB Group company
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