minutes of release team IRC meeting

[Andreas Barth <aba@not.so.argh.org>]

Hi,

we had a nice irc meeting this evening from 20.00 to 21.30 UTC.
Attendees were:

release team:
Steve (vorlon), Release Manager
Andi (aba), Release Assistent
Frank (djpig), Release Assistent
Joey [Hess] (joeyh), Release Assistent

ftp team:
Ryan (neuro), ftp-master

(with other people as more or less silent listners also present, also from the
mentioned teams)


Topics:
- anything still open for freeze?
- anything that needs to be changed about the mechanics of the freeze?
- handling of frozen packages by the release team (division of labor, policy)
- freeze announcement
- missing britney/katie features that aren't required for the freeze, but
  we think we want them


We came to the conclusion that the freeze can get into effect as of now.
(Except that there was no icecream available, but well - we all have to
make sacrifices.)


freeze mechanics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We all had the common understanding of "freeze" at the current stage as:
- block all sourceful updates, with the option to unblock them;
- allow per-arch updates in as before;
- allow removals as before, i.e., removals from unstable propagate if
  possible, and remove hints continue to work

Andi had an example patch for that on
http://newraff.debian.org/~aba/britney.freeze

Steve will write the freeze announcement.


freeze policy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For now, we will accept fixes of important and above bugs, l10n and
documentation updates via unstable.  Via testing-proposed-updates, only
RC-bug fixes, l10n and documentation updates are accepted.

Also, at the beginning, we'll make an exception for stuck packages that
were ready before the freeze, but didn't make it for some reason (e.g. if
they needed a hint to go in as group).  Also, packages that are uploaded as
of now, contain important or above fixes and would have been accepted by
previous rules, can get an freeze exception (with the exception for now
upstream versions and other things we don't like).

We still prefer packages via unstable, as long as possible.


load sharing
~~~~~~~~~~~~
As of the freeze, the RMs want to distributed the task of reviewing
packages. They reserve the right to approve packages that are
* already frozen by the pre-freeze policy (i.e. base, standard and above, ...)
* new upstream versions etc (though they're generally not considered to be
  acceptable, but there might be an exception)
All other requests are open for RMs and RAs.

Any requests needs to go via the role account, so that all know what
happens.

Also, start of reviewing packages should be announced on IRC to prevent
unnecessary work.


wanted britney/katie-features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Currently, britney requires two edits on approving frozen packages from
  t-p-u. That should better be unified before packages flowing in via
  t-p-u.
- Announces for t-p-u-uploads [done by Ryan; thanks]
- Possibility to reject t-p-u uploads (Attention: If a package is rejected
  from t-p-u, newer uploads need a newer version, and one needs to take
  care of that by hand - otherwise, all bad things may happen)
- All should get the possibility to t-p-u-approve; given the things above,
  either including them in the hints-file or as extra new files.
- there is some problem with t-p-u if unstable is behind on some arches
  (like currently with evolution): Some binary packages are unaccepted.
  Ryan proposed to just accept the packages also in unstable, even if the
  appropriate sources are only in t-p-u. Andi will work on a patch.




Cheers,
Andi
-- 
   http://home.arcor.de/andreas-barth/
   PGP 1024/89FB5CE5  DC F1 85 6D A6 45 9C 0F  3B BE F1 D0 C5 D1 D9 0C