From: Paul Richards <p.richards@elsevier.co.uk>
Message-Id: <199512051130.LAA29215@cadair.elsevier.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Voting Summary
To: new-httpd@hyperreal.com
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 11:30:38 +0000 (GMT)
In-Reply-To: <9512050806.aa22905@gonzo.ben.algroup.co.uk> from "Ben Laurie" at
 Dec 5, 95 08:06:21 am
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In reply to Ben Laurie who said
> 
> A small consensus seems to be emerging, so, in the light of recent comments,
> I will restate the issue:
> 
> 1. Bugfixes only will go into 1.0.x.
> 2. A new branch, numbered 1.1<letter><number> will be created.
> 3. At some point in the future, 1.1<letter><number> will be released as 1.1.0,
> and will then become a bugfix only release, and 1.2<letter><number> created.
> 
> Ben	+1
> Brian	+1
> Alexei	+1
> 
> Deadline is Thursday 09:00 GMT.
> 

+1 from me on the general idea.

Bugfixes to the last release should be only show-stopper or close to it
fixes. That code is frozena and is not undergoing the daily testing
by the developers that it used to. If you start patching it willy-nilly
you'll introduce bugs not fix them. General procedure should be, if a
really nasty bug appears then someone spends a *LOT* of time determining
the problem, establishing a fix and then testing it out before applying it
to a frozen release.

On the 1.1b1 stugg, why not just do what all the free BSD projects do and
have an Apache-current, which is never frozen and is constantly at the
cutting edge of development which everyon sticks their new ideas into.

It's well understood by users what the -current sources are, they're buggy,
sometimes completely broken and are for developers only. When the
project feels it's about time for a release then you clean up any currently
very green code, move -current to x.x.beta and start bug fixing it ready for
release. Meanwhile, the developers keep adding new toys to the -current
branch.

It requires a release team of one or more individuals to look after the
x.x.beta code while everyone else has fun developing new toys in
-current. This model works very well and is something we've arrived at
in FreeBSD after several years of evolving procedures.

-- 
  Paul Richards. Originative Solutions Ltd.
  Internet: paul@netcraft.co.uk, http://www.netcraft.co.uk
  Phone: 0370 462071 (Mobile), +44 1225 447500 (work)