Re: [boost] Updated Development and Release Practices for 1.35.0

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-08-22 20:53:46

Basically I think this is a big step in the right direction.

I do think that one thing should be considered.

The release manager has the responsability of generating a quality release.
I think its only fair that he have the corresponding authority to restrict
check-ins to the release to those packages that HE deems ready
for release.  That is, check-ins to the the ready-for-release branch
would be subject to his prior approval.  Or may he himself is the
only authority - he would have a lock on the release branch.  He
might want to use this authority in a number of ways.

a) he might be in the middle of making a release tarball and
finishing up a couple of pending issues and not want anyone
messing with the release while he does this.

b) He might want to control that code is checked in to the
the release one library at a time.  This would be especially
useful for pre-requiste libraries which might generate failures
ni other libraries.  By choosing to hold other check-ins in the
meantime, he can be sure that any failures are due to interface
breaking without having to start up a research project.  Note
that tool updates like bjam etc are in the same situation
as pre-requisit libraries in that all libraries depend upon them.

But my main point is still the first one.  Its unfair and unrealistic
to expect the release manager to create a good release unless
he has the leverage and authority required to do that.

Robert Ramey

Beman Dawes wrote:
> The Development and Release Practices trac wiki page has been updated.
> See http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/ImprovingPractices
>
> The most important changes were refinements of the repository
> organization and addition of more specific procedures for merging from
> the trunk to the next release. The merging is described in terms of
> TortoiseSVN. It would be helpful if someone familiar with command line
> svn provided an equivalent set of instructions for command line users.
>
> I'm trying to restrict the process to things we can do right away, so
> we
> can get started on 1.35.0.
>
> Comments appreciated.
>
> --Beman
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