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Release Team meeting minutes (and release update)



Hello,

As previously announced[RT:PM], the Debian Release Team held a meeting
on 2 and 3 Oct, 2010 in Paris, France. The meeting was kindly sponsored
by IRILL[RT:PMS]. The attendees were Adam D. Barratt (adsb), Luk Claes
(luk), Julien Cristau (jcristau), Mehdi Dogguy (mehdi), Philipp Kern
(pkern) and Felipe Augusto van de Wiel (faw).


Documentation
=============

We improved the documentation related to Point Releases[CL:PR] and
documented the procedure for Releases[CL:RE].  We also updated the
Release Team wiki[RT:WI] page and we'll be adding more information in
the upcoming weeks.


Stable Updates and Volatile
===========================

We discussed how Volatile will evolve based on our experiences managing
it. Considering the fact that there is nothing in volatile-sloppy for
Lenny and that having a separate archive is painful, we would like to
propose a plan for a new workflow for Squeeze:

    [ urgent-upload ]   [ upload ]
                     \ /
                      |
 [ security ]----[ p-u-NEW ] (visualised by queue-viewer)
                      |
                      | accept
                      |
                 [   p-u   ] <-- autobuilding, users testing
  urgent uploads -->/ |
                   /  |
 [ stable-updates ]   |
                   \  | point release[1]
                    \ |
                  [ stable ]

[1] Point releases: include removals, updates ready to be cherry-picked
    from proposed-updates, but all updates from stable-updates are
included.

The Volatile Team and the Release Team share the same members, we would
like to merge the Volatile Team into the Release Team and change the
suite name to 'stable-updates'.

The new dynamics allow maintainers to do only one upload instead of
separate uploads to stable and volatile. The Release Team can then copy
the package to the appropriate suite; if it is an urgent upload, it will
be made available quickly to our users through stable-updates.

During a point release, we will merge proposed-updates, security and
stable-updates into the point release. We are planning to have a
stable point release every two months and an oldstable point release evert four months in between two stable point releases.

We would like to create a new list for users to receive announcements
about new packages in stable-updates and requests for testing of
packages in proposed-updates. The final name for this list has not yet
been decided; the current suggestions include debian-stable-announce.
Have a look at #598939.


Release notes and upgrade reports
=================================

The release notes for Squeeze are progressing well and a call for
translations will be made soon.
This means that if you are aware of an issue that should be mentioned
in the release notes, you need to make sure a bug is filed for it,
preferrably with proposed wording, *now*.

Once this has occurred, we will be encouraging the testing of new
installs of Squeeze and upgrades from Lenny to Squeeze. As a result of
these tests there will be a number of bug reports against the
installation-reports and upgrade-reports pseudo-packages (dealing both
with successful upgrades and problems with the process) which will need
processing, categorising and reassigning to the affected packages.  If
you are interested in helping with this process, please contact us.


Release Update (Squeeze Status)
===============================

Freeze Status (Unblock Policy)
------------------------------

The Release Team would like to remind everybody that we are under deep
freeze. We are updating the current unblock policy to get stricter
rules:

A new version may only contain changes falling in one of the following
categories (compared to the version in testing):

  - fixes for release critical bugs (i.e., bugs of severity critical,
	grave and serious) in all packages;
  - changes for release goals, if they are not invasive;
  - translation updates
  - documentation fixes

Please upload packages fitting this description to unstable, then
request the freeze exception by filing a bug against release.debian.org.
You don't need to include the full diff (which we re-generate from the
uploaded packages anyway), but please include the relevant changelog
entries.


Transitions and removals
------------------------

All transitions are done and we do not plan any new transitions.

Recently, the Release Team had to made some decisions between package
upgrades and package removals. Please understand that when you say
"allow a new version or remove the old one", both options are valid from
the Release Team's point of view and we may end up deciding in favour of
the removal.

Another important request: please, do not upload packages to t-p-u
because you uploaded newer versions to unstable, always contact the
Release Team.


Bug Squashing Parties
---------------------
The Release Team is still concerned about the number of release critical
bugs affecting testing. We are still optimistic that currently known
issues can be squashed in short time with your help.

We're also looking for hosts for real-life and online bug squashing
parties! These have shown to be hugely effective at getting the number
of RC bugs down, and a great way to get developers together to work
towards the release. Volunteers are welcome, please feel free to contact
us.


Current Release Blockers
------------------------

 * udev: fix the upgrade path and/or document a proper workaround
   (#571255)
 * dash: fix preinst (#546528)
 * Debian Installer: have a final release
 * Release Notes: have proper documentation for Squeeze installs and
   upgrades
 * Security archive supports V3 (#575733)


Proposed timeline
-----------------

We hope to have sorted out all the details and resolved the remaining
blockers by the end of October, with the focus during November being on
translation updates, testing and coordination with different teams to
prepare the new release.

This means that it's possible to have a release out in time for
Christmas, but to do this we need YOUR help. Please, squash bugs, write
release notes, squash bugs, support our translators and squash some
bugs.


References:
 [RT:PM] http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2010/09/msg00132.html
 [RT:PMS] http://www.irill.org
 [CL:PR] http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/ReleaseTeam/PointReleaseCheckList
 [CL:RE] http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/ReleaseTeam/ReleaseCheckList
 [RT:WI] http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/ReleaseTeam

Thanks,
Neil
-- 
Release Team
http://release.debian.org

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