Topic When do we release/bugfix?
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In Response to Günther
Okay, let me explain the usual model of stable and unstable branches.
The stable branch only gets patches that are known to not make things worse. What exactly that means is different from project to project. Some require more certainty in the knowledge than others, some do more work to produce that knowledge than others. I propose we use not a lot of work, but require a modest amount of certainty, resulting in mostly trivial bugfixes.
The unstable branch operates on entirely different rules. After a release from the unstable branch, the rules for the unstable branch are the loosest the project uses. We're mostly using "anything goes". Over time, the rules become stricter, until only release-blocking bugfixes are allowed. When no release-blocking bugs are left, the cycle begins anew. That's the point in time when "all the other changes" not in the stable branch are in a release. They got reviewed by being tested.
Releases from the unstable branch might or might not be descendants of releases from the stable branch. They are, if bugfixes are first pushed to stable, then merged into unstable, or they aren't, if bugfixes are first pushed to unstable, then picked to stable. I wrote about that earlier in this thread.
Typically, releases from the unstable branch are numbered X.0, releases from the stable branch X.Y with Y > 0.
The reason to use this model is that you need time to find and fix bugs after you merged big new features. You can try to find them earlier by publishing the features on separate branches, and that's certainly a good idea. But a lot of bugs will only be found by people who have no direct interest in that feature and won't download the branch, but who do have an interest in the next big release. We can't test every scenario for every feature, but we can test every scenario before every release from the unstable branch. Or, at least, every interesting scenario will be tested after a release by some random player who will hopefully care enough to report the bugs they find.
The stable branch only gets patches that are known to not make things worse. What exactly that means is different from project to project. Some require more certainty in the knowledge than others, some do more work to produce that knowledge than others. I propose we use not a lot of work, but require a modest amount of certainty, resulting in mostly trivial bugfixes.
The unstable branch operates on entirely different rules. After a release from the unstable branch, the rules for the unstable branch are the loosest the project uses. We're mostly using "anything goes". Over time, the rules become stricter, until only release-blocking bugfixes are allowed. When no release-blocking bugs are left, the cycle begins anew. That's the point in time when "all the other changes" not in the stable branch are in a release. They got reviewed by being tested.
Releases from the unstable branch might or might not be descendants of releases from the stable branch. They are, if bugfixes are first pushed to stable, then merged into unstable, or they aren't, if bugfixes are first pushed to unstable, then picked to stable. I wrote about that earlier in this thread.
Typically, releases from the unstable branch are numbered X.0, releases from the stable branch X.Y with Y > 0.
The reason to use this model is that you need time to find and fix bugs after you merged big new features. You can try to find them earlier by publishing the features on separate branches, and that's certainly a good idea. But a lot of bugs will only be found by people who have no direct interest in that feature and won't download the branch, but who do have an interest in the next big release. We can't test every scenario for every feature, but we can test every scenario before every release from the unstable branch. Or, at least, every interesting scenario will be tested after a release by some random player who will hopefully care enough to report the bugs they find.
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