From 14705824a61155a9b2366c1d982832f8c5a8366b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Pekka Paalanen Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2018 13:32:03 +0300 Subject: [PATCH] contributing: document the release cycle freezes These should be the conventions we have been using since 1.0, written down more accurately. Signed-off-by: Pekka Paalanen Reviewed-by: Daniel Stone Reviewed-by: Derek Foreman --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 35 insertions(+) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index 9442d75..4273d99 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -304,5 +304,40 @@ Maintainers and committers should encourage contributors to request commit rights, especially junior contributors tend to underestimate their skills. +Stabilising for releases +======================== + +A release cycle ends with a stable release which also starts a new cycle and +lifts any code freezes. Gradual code freezing towards a stable release starts +with an alpha release. The release stages of a cycle are: + +- **Alpha release**: + Signified by version number #.#.91. + Major features must have landed before this. Major features include + invasive code motion and refactoring, high risk changes, and new stable + library ABI. + +- **Beta release**: + Signified by version number #.#.92. + Minor features must have landed before this. Minor features include all + new features that are not major, low risk changes, clean-ups, and + documentation. Stable ABI that was new in the alpha release can be removed + before a beta release if necessary. + +- **Release candidates (RC)**: + Signified by version number #.#.93 and up to #.#.99. + Bug fixes that are not release critical must have landed before this. + Release critical bug fixes can still be landed after this, but they may + call for another RC. + +- **Stable release**: + Signified by version number #.#.0. + Ideally no changes since the last RC. + +Mind that version #.#.90 is never released. It is used during development when +no code freeze is in effect. Stable branches and point releases are not covered +by the above. + + [git documentation]: http://git-scm.com/documentation [notes on commit messages]: http://who-t.blogspot.de/2009/12/on-commit-messages.html -- 2.7.4