nginx exception request

[Dave Walker]

On 30 June 2015 at 15:55, Thomas Ward <teward at trekweb.org> wrote:
> On 06/30/2015 06:08 AM, Robie Basak wrote:
>> On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 10:50:05AM +0100, Robie Basak wrote:
>>> Please can we agree on feature freeze and SRU policy exceptions so that
>>> we can execute option A, or otherwise discuss alternatives?
>>
>> Any thoughts please? Although we'd not execute on any exception until
>> 2016, Thomas needs to know now whether to merge 1.9 from Debian or
>> diverge on 1.8 for Wily.
> There is also another option that is likely less desirable than the
> other aforementioned options in the previous emails in this chain by
> Robie: We (or rather, I) could do absolutely nothing for Wily, and we
> can ultimately just deal with this closer to 16.04, such that we can
> have this discussion for a longer period of time.
>
> By doing nothing, 1.6.x will remain in Ubuntu for the duration of Wily.
> Features from 1.7.x which are now present in 1.8.x (nginx stable) will
> not exist in Ubuntu Wily, and even newer features (and to my chagrin,
> the "Disable SSLv3 By Default" change at the source code level) from
> 1.9.x will not exist in Ubuntu Wily either.  This option allows us on
> the Server Team, and myself, to not have to immediately worry about
> merging, while users who want the newer features in 1.8.x and 1.9.x can
> simply use the already-existing NGINX PPAs that I maintain which package
> both NGINX versions for all supported Ubuntu releases.
>
> While input from the Release team is sought for Wily, so we can try and
> have less of a merge delta by 16.04, we can theoretically do nothing now
> for Wily, and then go with 1.9.x in 16.04, and then focus on the one-off
> policy exceptions or potential other alternatives then, rather than
> require the release team's input immediately.  However, I believe it is
> a better option to consider 1.8.x or 1.9.x now for Wily rather than do
> nothing.
>

Hi,

Considering there is effort to plan ahead for future releases and
potential SRU/MRE extraordinary updates, I quite think this requires
input from the technical-board.  Rather than cross-posting this thread
to there, might I suggest a parallel thread is started there?

My thought is that Nginx previously hasn't received as much love in
Ubuntu as Apache, so doing as much as possible to align with Debian
support is probably preferential.  Although, teward seems to have been
doing a sustained effort at pushing it in Ubuntu.

Perhaps it would be useful to look at the Nginx PPA statistics, to try
and gauge how many people are using it outside of the primary
archives?  - teward, could you do an analysis on this?  This produces
some nice charts - http://wpitchoune.net/blog/ppastats/

Nginx seems to have a pretty reliable upstream reputation, mixed with
how near the scheduled release is to the next LTS and common for the
prior LTS to be used until the next point - I would be confident in
putting weight behind this idea, providing that:
 - LTS releases with the latest snapshot from hg upstream, and plan to
minimal SRU to tagged release (which there is prior art of)
 - Config files do not change
 - Upgrade is well tested (old LTS->new LTS, old Nginx LTS -> new
Nginx LTS & Wily->New LTS)

If this plan is done, then it makes sense to track 1.9.x series for
Wily and 1.10 for next LTS.  However, this really does require input
from the TB and commitment from teward and/or the server team to
follow through.

Thanks

--
Kind Regards,
Dave Walker

-- 
Kind Regards,
Dave Walker