Proposed IcedTea 6 release

[Andrew Haley]

Andrew John Hughes wrote:
> 2009/8/7 Mark Wielaard <mark at klomp.org>:
>> On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 09:01 -0400, Lillian Angel wrote:
>>>> If we're going to delay the new release to get the ARM thing in and
>>>> then test it, it may be weeks before a release appears with the
>>>> security fixes.  The minor release would fill this gap, ensuring there
>>>> is a patched release but without a need for extensive testing of new
>>>> features/changes.
>>>>
>>> Ok, understood. I can do the release today if everyone agrees this is
>>> what we want to do.
>> A rather see a real release with all the new stuff in instead of
>> delaying it for a new release cycle to add even more stuff. But if
>> backporting selected security patches to a minor release is easier for
>> you then go for that.
> 
> I agree.  I thought we were pretty much ready to go with a 1.6 release
> including the new plugin/netx/shark fixes and the SystemTap update,
> and hence could have rolled that out as the security update as well.
> But if others want the ARM port in 1.6, we need a minor release of the
> old tree (1.5) to get the security patches out there ASAP.

We know that testing the major release is going to take a while, even if
the branch is cut now, partly because some people are on holiday, and
partly because testing just takes time.  A lot of the pain we've had
has come from rushing through releases.

IMO we spend far too much time discussing these issues.  We need to make
this standard procedure: whenever there are fixes for significant bugs we
apply them to the current release branch and make a minor release.
Whenever there are significant new features we make a major release.
A lot of the discussion in this list is, IMO, a result of confusing
these unrelated issues.

The ARM port is all ready to go in apart from one minor problem.  This can
be fixed in the next few days, I hope, and the testing can begin.

Andrew.