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72 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
72 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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feature: nixos-release-schedule
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start-date: 2020-11-28
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author: Jonathan Ringer (@jonringer)
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co-authors: Frederik Rietdijk (@FRidh)
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shepherd-team: "@ryantm, @domenkozar and @garbas"
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related-issues:
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---
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# Summary
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[summary]: #summary
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NixOS is released twice a year; the current release schedule targets March
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and September for the release months. However, trying to provide a polished
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desktop-user experience is difficult and moving the target release months to
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May and November should minimize the amount of in-house work needed to
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cut a release.
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# Motivation
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[motivation]: #motivation
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By changing our release dates to follow those of certain upstream projects,
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we could reduce the amount of issues we encounter during stabilization.
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In particular, GNOME and KDE Plasma both have a release in September, which
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allows ample time for NixOS contributors to package and stabilize the
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desktop managers before the November release. For the May release, GNOME will
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have a similar stabilization period; while Plasma, which has a four month
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release cadence, will have a slightly older but still supported non-LTS
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release. Using LTS releases is not feasible as there is no guarantee that
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they will be compatible with the version of systemd during branch-off.
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The current March and September release months may be the worst months for
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GNOME and Plasma, as the release available during stabilization would be
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End-of-Life a few weeks after the target release date. Also, this period marks
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the greatest potential dependency "drift" from development on unstable. For example,
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many of the 20.09 release blockers were related to issues with systemd-246 and plasma-5.18,
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however, plasma-5.19 and the yet-released 5.20 both supported systemd-246 with
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zero additional effort.
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Choosing branch-off points in master where the major desktop manager use
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cases should be well stabilized will allow for release stabilization to
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focus on failing builds and minor issues.
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## Core changes
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The 21.03 release will be delayed until 21.05, and the current 20.09 release
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will be supported until June 2021. After the initial 21.05 release, all subsequent
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releases will occur six months apart following a YY.05 and YY.11 convention.
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# Drawbacks
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[drawbacks]: #drawbacks
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There will be some initial confusion with stable users as to why the 21.03
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release was delayed.
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# Alternatives
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[alternatives]: #alternatives
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## Maintain the status quo regarding release dates
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We could keep the release dates in March and September. However, we
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would need some other way to minimize the work and risk from trying to
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provide a polished experience for 60,000+ packages, 17 desktop managers,
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and 30+ window managers.
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# Future work
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[future]: #future-work
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- Update .version on master to 21.05
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- Update unstable osinfo-db entry to 21.05pre
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- Document the release schedule in the NixOS manual.
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- Announce the various deadlines on the mailing list (Discourse).
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