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

[Tuukka Turunen]

Hi Sean,

I do appreciate the offer to help with Qt 5.8.1 creation, but as I explained in my email to the ml yesterday, I do not think it is feasible plan to make a release without involving several people from The Qt Company for it and also causing a load to CI hindering development of 5.9 in parallel. Unfortunately making a new Qt release is so complicated due to large amount of platforms and packages involved, that it mandates effort of releasing team of The Qt Company as well as many developers. 

As I explained yesterday, even with a lot of help it would mean that 5.9.0 happens probably end of June or beginning of July. This would mean we lose the opportunity window to catch up with releasing and improve the CI system (because Finland and Norway mostly are off in July and Germany in August). Doing the CI change after August means we are already close to 5.10 release.

As multiple people and teams have planned their development according to initially agreed feature freeze time of Qt 5.9, it would be very inefficient to reopen 5.9 now or postpone getting the release out. 

If we can get KDAB and others helping with Qt 5.9 with even remotely similar effort than it would be to create Qt 5.8.1 release I am sure we can make an awesome Qt 5.9.0 ahead of the planned schedule. This means we can make the CI system improvements earlier and thus also have Qt 5.9.1 earlier.

Yours,

		Tuukka 

On 16/02/2017, 11.14, "Development on behalf of Sean Harmer" <development-bounces+tuukka.turunen=qt.io at qt-project.org on behalf of sean.harmer at kdab.com> wrote:

    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
    Tel. +44 (0)1625 809908; Sweden (HQ) +46-563-540090
    Mobile: +44 (0)7545 140604
    KDAB - Qt Experts
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