[oi-dev] Release engineering // planing

Wed Jul 10 21:50:56 UTC 2013

Good evening folks,

thanks for your feedbacks so far, here's the summary clustered in some way:

1.0 - Release Engineering:
1.1    - should not be bureaucratic, i.e. rather an internal agreement
(Alex)
1.2    - the process of pushing updates to /dev or /stable repos is
undefined (Alex)
1.3    - safeguarding /stable repo (Jon)
1.4    - streamline code review and integration process LGTMs (Adam)
1.5    - build of many desktop packages impossible due to missing Manifests
(David)
1.6    - creation of development, release and stable branches within
hipster repository (Erol)
1.7    - implementing feature requests (as Ken did), assigning tasks to
available developers (Erol)

2.0 - Build toolset / infrastructure
2.1    - package dependencies influencing build/installation of other
packages (Alex)
2.2    - build tools outdated and need refresh (David)

3.0 - General topics
3.1    - decide on direction of /hipster effort (David)

Here some my thoughts about the topics above, please share your opinion.

ad 3.1: hipster is in my opinion a bleeding edge / unstable type of repo.
It should not be limited to core or server packages, ideally a source of
all packages for stable/dev repos. Building a server or desktop ISO should
be left then for the people creating these. I personally use desktop
version of OI, but that was my choice to use it.

ad 1.1, 1.4: agree here; LGTMs process failed and caused people to stop
contributing. Using branches in git we can easily setup quick review
process and contributors can send their pull requests towards hipster
repository. Integration is then easily done by people having rights to do
this (Alex, David, Adam, etc).

ad 1.3: clever release engineering is definitely required. It requires
integration testing. Do we have resources and/or testing environments for
this?

ad 1.5: it is an issue and I would label it with prio 2 at this very
moment. Can we exactly identify which packages are missing?

ad 1.6: would it make sense to create stable, dev, release and edge
branches within hipster repository to stabilize releases a bit? Propagation
from edge to dev and stable would be easy-peasy with git. As a rough Idea
how it could look alike have a look at Vincent Driessen blog
entry<http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/>
.

ad 1.7: consider Ken's email with request for LibreOffice as a good example
where we could implement scrum method, delivering sprints and assigning
tasks to available volunteers. Which tool to use I cannot tell. JIRA is
obviously very common. Using milestones and issues in github one could
mimic the behaviour.

ad 2.1: package dependencies is indeed a prio 1 issue. I like the Alex's
idea of having BUILD and INSTALL dependencies listed. Would be manual
effort unless we can automate this. Any scripts to do this?

ad 2.2: prio 1* - needs immediate attention. David, you listed a few, can
we get a full list and split amongst us who is taking which tool to update?

Looking forward to your feedbacks and discussions.

Cheers, Erol

On 10 July 2013 11:52, Jonathan Adams <t12nslookup at gmail.com> wrote:

> While not a contributor of code atm :(, I suggested something a system
> when OI started, which was sort of agreed to by some people at the time ...
>
> 1) stable repository, guarded rigorously by people who do not allow
> anything in unless it's been signed and sealed as core and stable,
> seriously if this was surrounded by the river styx and you had to pay with
> your soul to cross, that'd be sensible.
>
> 2) dev/apps repository where apps that are considered not core, and mostly
> stable go, and changes to core that need testing before going stable.
>
> 3) bleeding edge dev repository where apps and code that are basically
> considered volatile, latest releases and all core code changes go, for
> those who are happy with a suck-it-and-see approach.
>
> this would allow risk-averse server admin to pick "stable", less
> risk-averse server admin (or risk-averse laptop/desktop users) to pick
> "dev", and those who like sky-diving on the way to work to pick
> "unstable"/"bleeding edge" ...
>
> I would imagine /hipster to be in the latter, and the current /dev to be
> in "dev", but then, I'm an outsider.
>
> Jon
>
>
>
>
> On 10 July 2013 10:34, David Höppner <0xffea at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I can speak only for myself, but I think its too early to try this. In
>> my view hipster is currently
>> only a developer effort. Too many core packages (automake, libtool,
>> glib) still need to be updated
>> to build some newer software. Even that ruby 1.8.7 update is End of
>> Life now. Further many packages (desktop)
>> can't be rebuild, because we have no Manifests in hipster for them yet.
>>
>> We should discuss the general direction of hipster (desktop,
>> core package versions and updated (to build illumos)), but I think
>> there are too many open problems
>> to impose release quality at this stage.
>>
>> -- David
>>
>> On 10 July 2013 03:24, Erol Zavidic <erolms at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Folks,
>> >
>> > I just want to notice a thing or two from my side that might be
>> relevant for the OI (hipster).
>> >
>> > What I've seen and consider really important is to implement a kind of
>> release engineering. And here I do not want some complicated process with
>> many approvals and stuff - rather a sleek and streamlined (hipster) release
>> management.
>> >
>> > I've seen packages breaking builds because of incompatible versions
>> (e.g. libmemcached bump made myself incompatible with php5.4, or ruby
>> version breaking other stuff...).
>> >
>> > Is it feasible to organise a non-bureaucratic release management
>> setting the priorities which packages should get updated first and then
>> possibly check for defects produced by it?
>> >
>> > Just a thought - and willing to help with it. Let me know your thoughts.
>> >
>> > Cheers, Erol
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > oi-dev at openindiana.org
>> > http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/oi-dev
>>
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