Formalizing the release process / schedule

Gabe Alford redhatrises at gmail.com
Mon Jul 7 17:27:57 UTC 2014


It would also be nice to organize tickets based off of the timed release.
So if doing a monthly time release, have a ticket queue for the month with
the tickets (if any) that would be closed for that month. For any tickets
that don't get closed in that month, role them into the next month's
release. This way users and developers would be able to know what to expect
for that particular month. Also, assigning tickets to the user 'someone'
for any ticket that is not being actively worked so that any new
contributor can take it upon themselves to work those inactively worked
tickets.

Just another 0.02.


On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 7:10 AM, Kayse, Josh <Joshua.Kayse at gtri.gatech.edu>
wrote:

>
> On Jun 24, 2014, at 10:16 AM, Jan Lieskovsky <jlieskov at redhat.com> wrote:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Steve Grubb" <sgrubb at redhat.com>
> >> To: scap-security-guide at lists.fedorahosted.org
> >> Cc: "Jan Lieskovsky" <jlieskov at redhat.com>
> >> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 2:32:43 PM
> >> Subject: Re: Formalizing the release process / schedule
> >>
> >> On Tuesday, June 24, 2014 04:55:33 AM Jan Lieskovsky wrote:
> >>> Hello folks,
> >>>
> >>>  since the request to give more formalized shape to SSG release
> process /
> >>> schedule appeared couple of times in the past already (to mention some
> >>> example:
> >>>
> https://lists.fedorahosted.org/pipermail/scap-security-guide/2014-May/00541
> >>> 6.html)
> >>
> >> I think a faster release cadence is a good idea in general. But beside
> >> speeding it up, some more formalities need to be considered. The
> biggest one
> >> is what is the meaning of major, minor, and patch in the project
> versioning?
> >> When would there be a stable branch?
> >
> > Thank you, Steve. These are great questions. To be honest I am not able
> to answer
> > them, but will try (Shawn, Jeff please correct me where appropriate):
> > * patch version - no new features, just bug fixes for existing checks
> > * minor version - adding new XCCDF rules / OVAL checks
> > * major version - adding support for new product?
> >
> > In the current scenario we don't differentiate these from each other
> (test case
> > fix might go into release with new rule definition / new product
> support). After
> > some time (when master diverged "sufficiently enough" from existing
> released version)
> > a new tarball is released. The current approach results into situation
> we are not
> > able (at least I) to tell how is e.g. 0.1.18 version better than 0.1.17
> one was.
> > So at least from this point of view having the versioning rules more
> strictly defined
> > it might be easier for the consumers to know what got improved from the
> last version.
> >
> > Regarding the stable branch - from the nowadays experience "it seems"
> the patches
> > are merged to stable branch in the moment they have shown not to break
> things.
> > What I personally miss from the version scheme being some way of
> expression about
> > the percentage, how much of the system is covered by the rules and to
> how much level
> > of testing those rules have been actually tested. In other words so the
> consumer
> > would be able to say e.g. v0.1.17 has had the RHEL-6 product covered to
> 75% percentage,
> > with 57% of rules being covered with test_attestation. v0.1.18 should
> then improve
> > these statistics (at least I hope so) - not just for RHEL-6, but also
> for other products.
> >
> > Having this applied I think it would be easier to identify the state,
> when we have reached
> > the "stable status" for some product. We could define the percentage
> level (for both cases)
> > -- border of percentage that once reached the particular product content
> should be
> > declared as stable. Then there are tricky things like how to express
> particular benchmark's
> > section is complete? Should various sections have various contribution
> to the final result /
> > stamp for content for particular product?
> >
> > Maybe they are other ways how to measure stability of a content for
> particular product
> > (if you have proposals for other different metrics feel free to share
> them).
> >
> > To implement these metrics it might take some additional time / effort,
> but at the end it
> > could allow us to support expressions about stability of the product
> with scientific methods.
> >
> >>
> >> Then, based on having a versioning policy, its desirable to overlay
> that with
> >> goals. What are the goals for 0.2? 0.3? 1.0?
> >
> > Here again. These are white places on the map for now. Not able to tell
> how would
> > v0.3 be different from v0.2 -- is it just v0.3 would have more rules
> implemented, more
> > tests equipped with attestations, more products supported? Or would we
> want to differentiate
> > also based on the features? If so, what features would be the key ones
> the presence of them
> > by themselves to be sufficient enough for claiming new major version?
> >
> >>
> >> As the project grows in importance, these need to be documented so that
> >> consumers know what to expect.
> >
> > Agree on the need of these to be explicitly expressed (if not now yet,
> they
> > will definitely be needed with more urgency in the future).
> >
> > Thank you && Regards, Jan.
> > --
> > Jan iankko Lieskovsky / Red Hat Security Technologies Team
> >
> >>
> >> -Steve
> >>
> >>
> >>> and since we are hitting the doubt if already make / not to make yet a
> new
> >>> release each time (each couple of weeks), we have decided to share the
> idea
> >>> about SSG release process proposal.
> >>>
> >>>  The proposal is to have release of new tarballs to happen at regular
> time
> >>> (each 4 up to 6 weeks), and have a dedicated wiki page listing when the
> >>> couple of upcoming releases will happen [1]. Something like Mozilla is
> >>> doing for their products: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases
> >>>  https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases#Upcoming_Releases
> >>>  https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar
> >>>
> >>>  From the observation period of 6 weeks is enough to have "sufficient
> >>>  count
> >>> of new bug fixes / features requests" (aka the evolution step) these
> >>> changes by themselves to form a need of a new release. But since it's
> >>> difficult to decide if some patchset deserves new release (what's very
> >>> valuable for someone, might not be that exciting / urgent for someone
> else
> >>> etc.) to be fair we decided regular release period might be the best
> option
> >>> how to balance out the various requests that might come out.
> >>>
> >>>  Therefore starting from the next release we would like the release to
> >>> happen regularly (each 4 up to 6 weeks - this to be decided yet. Feel
> free
> >>> to vote for your preferences) at a date listed on the wiki page [2].
> This
> >>> could allow us establish automated functionality which could in
> >>> sufficiently ahead period of time (for example week ago) notify the
> list
> >>> the new release is coming and if someone is planning from their point
> of
> >>> view critical patches to be included yet, those should be proposed /
> >>> reviewed as soon as possible.
> >>>
> >>>  To express personal opinion I would prefer the releases to happen on
> per
> >>>  4
> >>> week scenario (while 6 weeks window might produce more changes in the
> >>> tarball & less releases during the year at the end it also introduces
> some
> >>> related inconsistency - one time the release would happen at start of
> the
> >>> month, next time in the middle etc.) since it has the advantage the
> release
> >>> will happen each time at regular (same) period, so users can update
> their
> >>> functionality to better align upgrades with the schedule.
> >>>
> >>>  Yet, since majority of us works on various / multiple projects, it
> might
> >>> happen start of the week might not be the right time for new release
> >>> (urgent action required somewhere else resulting into delay of a
> release
> >>> etc.). Therefore I would propose the release to happen each first
> Friday in
> >>> the month (the users could use the upcoming weekend to install the
> updates
> >>> if / where appropriate).
> >>>
> >>> Feedback, comments, votes, proposals welcome.
> >>>
> >>> Thank you && Regards, Jan.
> >>> --
> >>> Jan iankko Lieskovsky / Red Hat Security Technologies Team (on behalf
> of
> >>> SSG
> >>> upstream)
> >>>
> >>> [1] For now the wiki would contain just dates of past releases & dates
> of
> >>> the upcoming ones (possibly also describing the release scheme). In the
> >>> future it could provide further information what functionality each of
> the
> >>> releases introduced (and taking it to the very advanced level
> hopefully too
> >>> which functionality the new releases will contain in the future).
> >>>
> >>> [2] Once the scheme is clear (the proposal is approved), I will create
> that
> >>> wiki page. _______________________________________________
> >>> scap-security-guide mailing list
> >>> scap-security-guide at lists.fedorahosted.org
> >>> https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/scap-security-guide
> >>
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > scap-security-guide mailing list
> > scap-security-guide at lists.fedorahosted.org
> > https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/scap-security-guide
>
> I agree that a time based release makes the most sense.  I additionally
> think that a monthly release, either the first Friday or last Friday makes
> a lot of sense.  Presumably a release on a Friday would mean a new package
> by the following Friday.  2 weeks in testing for EPEL (until shipped with
> RHEL) would mean the package would be ready for general consumption 3-4
> weeks later.  Bleeding edge consumers could help test the package and more
> risk adverse consumers could continue testing and just remain a month or
> more behind in releases.
>
> As far as versioning is concerned, I believe there should be more
> discussion around it and what the different versions mean.  I don’t think
> this should interfere with the decision on a time-based release schedule.
>
> Just my 0.02.
>
> -josh
> _______________________________________________
> scap-security-guide mailing list
> scap-security-guide at lists.fedorahosted.org
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