[MERGE] Create a new hook Branch.open. (Robert Collins)

[John Arbash Meinel]

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Robert Collins wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-09-04 at 22:37 -0500, John Arbash Meinel wrote:
>> Further, it is meant to encourage you to spend your time getting
>> things
>> merged that have already been approved for 1.7:
>> http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/project/bzr/request/%
>> 3C1220318923.19324.26.camel%40lifeless-64%3E
>> http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/project/bzr/request/%
>> 3C1219798121.31549.383.camel%40lifeless-64%3E
> 
> Well, it doesn't do that.

I can agree that this particular instance did not. However, if we
generally actually *encourage* feature freezes during FF week, that
helps focus people to actually finish the things that they started, and
get some time on the bug tracker.

I think bzr as a project is getting pretty bad about pushing things
through to completion. I see 29 patches on the "semi approved but not
merged yet" pages:
http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/?selected=pending&unreviewed=n
http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/?selected=pending&start=24&unreviewed=n

These are things that at least one person has approved, and often more
than one. That is a sign that we are doing a lot of work that isn't
getting merged. If it needs to be rejected/resubmitted fine. But it is
sitting not getting reviews, or being approved and not getting merged.
I've certainly been asking people to focus on reviewing (and I've gotten
"My Pending" down to only 5 items).

> 
>> And to do bugfixes on Bug Day (and in general during Feature Freeze).
> 
> I don't see mail about a bug day on this list since april the 4th (and
> in general I think bug days are a pretty weird concept). 

8/29 entitled "1.7 dates and requests", to quote:
> 
> To encourage reviewers, patches that are in the BB queue *before freeze* will
> have a high chance of being allowed in after freeze.
> 
> Once feature freeze hits, I really do plan on having a week of bugs-only
> fixes. As mentioned early on, I'll probably try to organize at least one day
> to be an official "bugs" day, where I'll poke at people on IRC to triage and
> post fixes for bugs. The best day for that seems to be Wed or Thurs US time.

I also mentioned it on IRC 2 or 3 times. And I believe I mentioned it in
the standup call early in the week. If not, I'm sorry for missing that.


The feature
> freeze is about time to catch regressions IMO, not about stopping
> everything. My memory of the release cycle may be spotty, but I thought

That is true, I've explictly chosen for 1.7 to make it about getting
things that have been done completed and out the door. I've mentioned it
in most of my "1.7" update emails.

> it was:
> 3 weeks open
> 1 week no disruptive changes

We've had differing levels of what that week means. Including bringing
in *tons* of disruptive changes during that week. (Witness 0.15, some of
1.6, etc.)

> branch release branch
> 1 week later release from that branch
> 
> -Rob

My plan was to do:

Week (generally things happen late US Monday, or early AU Tues.)
1) 1.7 Feature Freeze
2) 1.7 rc1		bzr.dev open for 1.8
3) 1.7 final		still open
4)			1.8 open
5)			1.8 FF
6)			1.8 rc1			bzr.dev open for 1.9
7) ...

Which is generally, as you say 3 weeks open, 1 week "frozen" (by
whatever definition), rc1 based off the end of the frozen week, final
based on rc1 the next week.

We are just discussing what "frozen" means. We have generally been
rather soft here, and often too soft. I'm probably being too strict for
1.7. I'll let others decide how clear I've been about wanting people to
get things out of the review queue and actually merged. I know I've sent
an email including that sentiment at least 2 or 3 times.

I don't think it is going to be directly productive for us to debate
around in circles. Though I am interested in getting other people's
feedback. I would *really* like to see feature freeze week be the time
to ask people to focus on getting bugs squashed, code merged,
documentation written, and not developing new features. You can chose
what to do on your time, but my shaping what gets accepted for that
week, it can help encourage people to do some polishing.

John
=:->
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