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Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 2:02 pm
by Vezzra
Ophiuchus wrote: Tue May 19, 2020 9:24 am Can we have some time-constrained polishing phases when we do the next release?
I think such a strict schedule/plan can only work with a more, let's say, "disciplined" team. The FO dev team is a more "loosely" organized group. While there are some general guidelines or directives given by the project leads on what we want contributors to work on, basically people work on what they are currently interested in.

Which is why it's usually quite unpredictable what a release cycle will actually be about in the end, at least to a certain degree. What is actually going to be worked on next depends on what the currently active main contributors pick up. The project leads only give out suggestions, but we do not "command" the rest of the team the way it's done in more strictly organized dev teams.

That has certain advantages and drawbacks of course, but it's the way this project has been working for many years now.

So, feature freeze basically happens when the release branch is created, because that gives more control over what gets cherry picked into the release branch (and thus included into the release). Usually only fixes for bugs and balance issues, or things that polish something are cherry picked. Cherry picking of new features is a rare exception, which needs a good reason.

To focus playtesting on the release branch, the weekly test builds are based on it until the release is out, so that takes care of the release branch getting proper testing. Usually it takes several weeks at least, if not a few months from the creation of the release branch until the release is out, so plenty of time to get all the bugfixing, polishing, balance fine tuning, translation updates in.

That approach has worked reasonably well in the past.

That said, I'm open to suggestions for change. If the majority of you guys think that a more strict release procedure (with freezing of master etc.) would work better, feel free to open a thread (on this subforum) and start a discussion about it. But please do not continue it here, this thread is dedicated to the 0.4.10 release.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 2:59 pm
by Oberlus
Vezzra wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 1:40 pm So far, so good, what worries me however are the many complaints and issues about recent test builds being unstable and crash-prone. Although it looks like you guys managed to address much of it, I'm still wondering how stable latest master really is, and if I should proceed with the creation of the release branch coming Sunday, or postpone it so master cen get more stable again before I create the release branch.
AFAIK, the instability came from the many recent changes on boost->std and some other refactoring. Playtesters are doing great job finding bugs but we maybe need more time. I hope there is a way to ensure that no more refactoring changes in the backend can get into master and introduce more possible bugs (that might be already addressed, I don't know).

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Sun May 24, 2020 2:10 pm
by Vezzra
After I saw that no more release-blocking issues or PRs are left open, I decided to go ahead and created the release branch for 0.4.10, despite master having been a bit crash prone recently. Looks like most of these issues have been addressed. Should more turn up, we'll just have to fix them and cherry pick the fixes to the release branch. I figured we've delayed the creation of the release branch enough, time to get moving. 8)

I've also created the release tracking issue (#2980) on github.

You know the drill: From now on, the weekly test builds will be based on the release branch, until the release is out. Only bugfixes will be cherry picked to the release branch. If you think that some other stuff that isn't strictly a bugfix should be cherry picked, please post a request here (and cite good reasons! :wink:). That, however, should be the rare exception. Stuff that has been tagged for post release can now be merged into master.

Focus your efforts on playtesting and bughunting the release branch, and on providing fixes for bugs and issues that come up, so we can polish the release and get sufficiently stable builds. It might be a good idea to pay special attention to the kind of UI issues/crashes that plagued master recently, to make sure we catch all still lurking issues of that sort.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 6:47 am
by o01eg
Will be #2970 and #2969 backported to 0.4.10?

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 7:20 am
by Geoff the Medio
No-one tested them against the reported issues and reported back, so I have no plans to cherry pick them to release.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 10:02 am
by o01eg
Geoff the Medio wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 7:20 am No-one tested them against the reported issues and reported back, so I have no plans to cherry pick them to release.
OK, I'll cherry pick them to my server's code then.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Sun May 31, 2020 12:25 pm
by Vezzra
Geoff the Medio wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 7:20 am No-one tested them against the reported issues and reported back, so I have no plans to cherry pick them to release.
In that case, please assign the respective issues and PRs to the post release milestone.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Sun May 31, 2020 1:05 pm
by Vezzra
Ok, something I forgot to mention:

Now that the release branch has been created, when a PR gets merged, it (and in case of fixes, also the issue it fixes) needs to get assigned to either the "post release" milestone (in case the PR should not get cherry picked to the release branch), or the "0.4.10" milestone and tagged with "cherry-pick for release" (in case the PR should get cherry picked to the release branch).

Otherwise I don't know what shall get cherry-picked and what not.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 10:32 am
by Vezzra
Several bugs have been fixed, currently leaving only one release-blocking item (aside from the changelog), the encyclopedia graph axis label issue (which already has a proposed fix, so will hopefully be resolved within the next week).

That leaves only the changelog, which Geoff has already provided a PR (#3022) for (thanks again for taking care of that!). I ask all active contributors to review that PR, see if anything is missing or needs corrections. Also, please make suggestions what should go into the key changes section (aside from the obvious one, the switch to Python3, which has been the declared primary focus of this release).

Once the changelog is ready to merge, I will determine and announce the deadlines for RC1 and declaring the release.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:30 pm
by Morlic

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2020 3:02 pm
by Vezzra
Morlic wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:30 pm Should https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/issues/3001 with corresponding PR https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/pull/3002 be considered for release?
Hm, I think it's not serious enough to classify #3001 as release blocking, but if a proper fix gets into master in time, I guess it's reasonable to cherry pick it. After all, bug fixes should go into the release.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:35 pm
by Vezzra
Update: We still got one open PR (#3044, which will hopefully be merged soon) and two open issues (#3042 and #3059) which need to be addressed for 0.4.10. Please focus your efforts on fixing these remaining issues.

Also, to all our playtesters, please focus your playtesting efforts on the pre-release test builds. I know, playing around with the recently merged Government feature is probably more fun and interesting, but in order to get the release out, it's more important that the pre-release test builds (and later on the release candidates) receive proper and sufficient playtesting.

The sooner that's done, the sooner we get the release out, and the sooner you all can return to the exiting new things master has to offer. :D

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 1:33 pm
by Oberlus
I hope to make a rebalance PR ASAP. I could do it now (I feel confident enough on my playtesting), but will wait for some more feedback.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:11 pm
by adrian_broher
Vezzra wrote: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:35 pm I know, playing around with the recently merged Government feature is probably more fun and interesting, but in order to get the release out, it's more important that the pre-release test builds (and later on the release candidates) receive proper and sufficient playtesting.
Future process improvement: make master insufferable to use during releases.

Re: 0.4.10 release

Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 2:06 pm
by Ophiuchus
adrian_broher wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:11 pm
Vezzra wrote: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:35 pm I know, playing around with the recently merged Government feature is probably more fun and interesting, but in order to get the release out, it's more important that the pre-release test builds (and later on the release candidates) receive proper and sufficient playtesting.
Future process improvement: make master insufferable to use during releases.
Ah thats why you are doing all that refactorings right now :lol:

(Just joking!!!! (At least until I try to merge my current work, although i guess geoffs changes will give me most troubles this time))