124 lines
5.1 KiB
XML
124 lines
5.1 KiB
XML
<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd"
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[<!ENTITY % poky SYSTEM "../poky.ent"> %poky; ] >
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<chapter id='ref-release-process'>
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<title>Yocto Project Releases and the Stable Release Process</title>
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<para>
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The Yocto Project release process is predictable and consists of both
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major and minor (point) releases.
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This brief chapter provides information on how releases are named, their
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life cycle, and their stability.
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</para>
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<section id='major-and-minor-release-cadence'>
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<title>Major and Minor Release Cadence</title>
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<para>
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The Yocto Project delivers major releases (e.g. &DISTRO;) using a six
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month cadence roughly timed each April and October of the year.
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Following are examples of some major YP releases with their codenames
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also shown.
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See the
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"<link linkend='major-release-codenames'>Major Release Codenames</link>"
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section for information on codenames used with major releases.
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<literallayout class='monospaced'>
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2.2 (Morty)
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2.1 (Krogoth)
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2.0 (Jethro)
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</literallayout>
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While the cadence is never perfect, this timescale facilitates
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regular releases that have strong QA cycles while not overwhelming
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users with too many new releases.
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The cadence is predictable and avoids many major holidays in various
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geographies.
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</para>
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<para>
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The Yocto project delivers minor (point) releases on an unscheduled
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basis and are usually driven by the accumulation of enough significant
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fixes or enhancements to the associated major release.
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Following are some example past point releases:
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<literallayout class='monospaced'>
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2.1.1
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2.1.2
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2.2.1
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</literallayout>
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The point release indicates a point in the major release branch where
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a full QA cycle and release process validates the content of the new
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branch.
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<note>
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Realize that there can be patches merged onto the stable release
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branches as and when they become available.
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</note>
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id='major-release-codenames'>
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<title>Major Release Codenames</title>
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<para>
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Each major release receives a codename that identifies the release in
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the
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<ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_DEV_URL;#yocto-project-repositories'>Yocto Project Source Repositories</ulink>.
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The concept is that branches of
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<ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_DEV_URL;#metadata'>Metadata</ulink>
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with the same codename are likely to be compatible and thus
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work together.
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<note>
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Codenames are associated with major releases because a Yocto
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Project release number (e.g. &DISTRO;) could conflict with
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a given layer or company versioning scheme.
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Codenames are unique, interesting, and easily identifiable.
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</note>
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Releases are given a nominal release version as well but the codename
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is used in repositories for this reason.
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You can find information on Yocto Project releases and codenames at
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<ulink url='https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Releases'></ulink>.
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id='stable-release-process'>
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<title>Stable Release Process</title>
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<para>
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Once released, the release enters the stable release process at which
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time a person is assigned as the maintainer for that stable release.
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This maintainer monitors activity for the release by investigating
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and handling nominated patches and backport activity.
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Only fixes and enhancements that have first been applied on the
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"master" branch (i.e. the current, in-development branch) are
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considered for backporting to a stable release.
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<note>
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The current Yocto Project policy regarding backporting is to
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consider bug fixes and security fixes only.
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Policy dictates that features are not backported to a stable
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release.
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This policy means generic recipe version upgrades are unlikely to
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be accepted for backporting.
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The exception to this policy occurs when a strong reason exists
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such as the fix happens to also be the preferred upstream approach.
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</note>
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</para>
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<para>
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Stable release branches have strong maintenance for about a year after
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their initial release.
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Should significant issues be found for any release regardless of its
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age, fixes could be backported to older releases.
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For issues that are not backported given an older release,
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Community LTS trees and branches exist where
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community members share patches for older releases.
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However, these types of patches do not go through the same release
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process as do point releases.
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You can find more information about stable branch maintenance at
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<ulink url='https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Stable_branch_maintenance'></ulink>.
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</para>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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