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Re: Release Process Issues

by hdockter :: Rate this Message:

On Jun 3, 2009, at 4:01 PM, Paul Gier wrote:

> Adam Murdoch wrote:
>> Hans Dockter wrote:
>>> I have a couple of issues regarding our release process.
>>>
>>> If we do a minor release we have a Wiki page for the release. This
>>> page describes the new and noteworthy and displays a Jira query
>>> with the fixed issues. What should be do in case of a bug fix
>>> release? So far I have pasted the Jira issues in the announce
>>> email. But thinking about it, I guess we should also have a Wiki
>>> page for bug fix releases. Then there is also one place to look
>>> for all release notes.
>>>
>>> For the 0.6 and the 0.6.1 release I have forgotten to update the
>>> release notes (changelog.txt) which are shipped with the
>>> distribution. Which shows again that things which are not
>>> automated are likely to fail. There are couple of ways we can deal
>>> with this in the future:
>>> - Don't ship a changelog.txt.
>>> - Autogenerate the changelog.txt with a Jira query.
>>> - Just have a link to the wiki release notes in changelog.txt
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>>
>> I think we should have the same process for all releases - bug fix
>> or minor or major.
>> You should start by writing down what one has to do to do a
>> release. A checklist can be just as reliable and a whole heap
>> cheaper than automation in some situations. Then we can simplify
>> and automate later, if we need to.
>> Adam
>
> I'm new to gradle but I've been working with Maven for a few years.
> For Maven (and Mojo) releases we have a checklist [1][2], and I
> think this works pretty well. The same process is used for every
> release, as Adam suggests. IMO the less you have to think about the
> detailed steps of the release, the better.

I had a look at the checklist. It looks good. From the issues not on
the checklist I guess you have also automated a lot.

As we are not Apache our process is a little bit easier :). We also do
not provide RC's that are staged. This might be an option for the
future. I'm not sure.

>
> Instead of having a full wiki page for each release, we just update
> a list of recent releases on the wiki home page and link to jira
> [3]. And the wiki page also picks up the release announcements
> through rss.

The nice thing about having a Wiki page is to have a New and
Noteworthy section where you can point out the major new features and
improvements of the release. At the end of this Wiki page we include a
Jira query for the fixed issues. See for example: http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GRADLE/Gradle+0.6+Release+Notes

For us the question is whether it is worth for bugfix releases. And
for consistency reason it might be.

>
> As far as the changelog, if it's easy to autogenerate it from jira
> then I think it's worth it. Otherwise I think just a link to jira
> is fine.

Thanks for your feedback

- Hans

--
Hans Dockter
Gradle Project Manager
http://www.gradle.org

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« Return to Thread: Release Process Issues