[jboss-dev] Plan for next JBossAS 4.x releases

[Dimitris Andreadis]

Hello folks,

after internal discussions we came up with the following plan for the
next JBossAS 4.x releases. If you have any comments, objections or
alternatives to propose, please go ahead, we're still in the initial
phases.

JBoss-4.0.5 is the last version in Branch_4_0. In JIRA you'll find a
4.0.5.SP1 without a fixed release date. This one is destined (if needed)
for serious bug/security fixes but in general, development for this
branch stops here.

There is a new Branch_4_2 created by branching the latest from
Branch_4_0:
https://svn.jboss.org/repos/jbossas/branches/Branch_4_2/

This is a minor version increase so we can include updates to binaries
like jgroups/jboss cache that introduce incompatibilities and thus would
not be possible for a 4.0.x release. Minor feature changes/additions are
also possible. In JIRA, v4.0.6 is essentially renamed to v4.2.0. The
tentative dates for the first release are:

4.2.0.CR1, Jan/22nd - 4.2.0.GA, Mar/19th

4.2.0.CR1 breaks down as follows:
  3 weeks - to define the scope of the release, library updates,
dependencies, work on tasks
  6 weeks - scope freeze, work on tasks
  3 weeks - code freeze, testing, packaging, QA

It's essential for all involved parties (developers, leads, PM, support)
to participate in defining the scope of the first 4.2 release and record
it in JIRA (essentially until JBW), since future 4.2.x releases will
need to be compatible with this initial release. JIRA needs tidying-up
to a manageable set of tasks because we now have 164 issues scheduled
for 4.2.0.CR1 and we don't really have the luxury to spend much
development time on this. The focus is really in component updates,
testing and improving the overal quality. Our overal priority remains
JBoss5.

If you want to push tasks to future releases, you'll find also CR1's for
4.2.1, 5.0.1, 5.2.0.

For the existing Branch_4_0 my proposal would be to rollback to the
4.0.5 release, because some changes have been committed to it since the
release and we many not want all of them there.

Finally, Fernando Nasser [fnasser at redhat.com] will be ultimately
responsible for the productization of the 4.x releases, but I'll be here
to assist anyway, especially in the initial stages of this effort, so
please help Fernando in this difficult and complex task.

We will follow up with more emails related to the transition of 4.0.x to
4.2.x.

All comments are welcome.

Thanks
/Dimitris

PS
I'm tempted to name this branch "Oracle" ;-)  "Neo", "Trinity", "Agent
Smith" would do equally well.

--
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Dimitris Andreadis
AS, Project Lead
JBoss, a Division of Red Hat
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