Cadence and predictability of sos tagging

[pmoravec]

Over the past 15-ish months, we (Red Hat folks) have been releasing upstream z-stream tags (4.7.1 or similar) at a random unpredictable manner, purely driven by our downstream needs and capabilities. That unpredictability does not look good and I apologize for any inconvenience caused by that.

After some internal discussion, we commit to the further plan: we will create two z-stream tags per sos release, with 2 months cadence. That means:

• sos 4.7.2 to be released by us in a few days
• sos 4.8.0 to be released (by Jake) as usual (mid Aug)
• sos 4.8.1 to be released by us in mid Oct
• sos 4.8.2 to be released by us in mid Dec
• sos 4.9.0 to be released (by Jake) as usual (mid Feb)
• ..

Let me know if you have some question or concern to that.

[arif-ali]

Hey, thanks for your update on this.

We have been waiting for the latest z-release to come out, so that we can package that up.

For us, it would be awesome if we can get #3646 approved and merged in time for that release.

On top of that, if this is going to be a regular thing, are we ok to add these milestones into GH, so that we know the expectations. I'd be happy to contribute and help with any of the releases. After going through our internal release process we have found changes in newer distributions that releasing the .0 release became problematic, and a newer z-release would have made it more simpler as we would not need to import extra patches in. So, I would be very much on board, and if an extra release is needed, then I would be happy to do it.

[dnegreira]

Hi @pmoravec,

Thanks for the update and willingness to keep steering the versioning in a reliable manner, this is an excellent step forward.
I would also like to propose a way for us to volunteer to do the interim releases ourselves so that we can get acquainted with the release process to grow that confidence on releasing.
This would also relieve you and Jake a bit, even though, of course, I predict lots of questions and documentation that have to be written initially.

[TurboTurtle]

On top of that, if this is going to be a regular thing, are we ok to add these milestones into GH, so that we know the expectations.

This is my ask as well. I don't necessarily care when the releases happen, just so long as we have a rough target known ahead of time so that we can make plans around them. Of course things can and will change, and the milestone dates don't need to be set in stone, but a general "we're planning a z-stream release around XYZ date" would be very helpful.

[pmoravec]

Adding milestones to GH sounds good to me. Maybe worth having a separate issue/discussion/.. for each such release to align expectations and work. Like "hey, I would like to get PR 1234 in, can you review it?" or "So I will do the tagging in a few days" (and any volunteer to this is welcomed, for sure!).

(for the upcoming 4.7.2 release/tag, until something screws up or makes me too busy, I will bundle that tomorrow)