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The Bazaar Development Cycle
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============================
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We normally have one person acting as the release manager, who
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organizes development for the release and also actually makes the release
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tarball and posts announcements. It can be a different person from one
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Our usual process is that one week before release we will make a release
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branch from the trunk. We do one commit to that branch to change the
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version number to 'rc1', and advance the trunk version to 'dev' for the
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We then publish and announce this release candidate according to the
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process below. We then have a week of general testing of the rc,
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including some time for plugin authors to update their code for any
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Normally no changes will be made on the release branch unless serious bugs
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or regressions are found, and the release manager decides they should be
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merged in. After one week, the release branch's version number is updated
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and it's published as the final release. If regressions or serious
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problems are discovered after the final release we may make an additional
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point release from that branch.
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The process or timing can vary if that seems appropriate in a particular
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case but we try to release on a regular four week cycle.
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The net effect is that the code gets some extra testing before release,
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and the trunk is always open for general development.
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To start a new release cycle:
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#. Send mail to the list with the key dates, who will be the release
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manager, and the main themes or targetted bugs. Ask people to nominate
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objectives, or point out any high-risk things that are best done early,
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or that interact with other changes.
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#. Add a new "series" in Launchpad at <https://launchpad.net/bzr/+addseries>.
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There is one series for every *x.y* release.
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#. Add milestones to that series for the release candidate and the final
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release, and their expected dates.
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#. Deactivate old releases and their milestones.
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#. Update the version number in the ``bzr`` script, and the
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``bzrlib/__init__.py`` file.
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Every week the release manager should send a mail to the Bazaar list
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covering these points (as appropriate):
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* Early communication about changing dependencies or defaults
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* Reminder re lifecycle and where we're up to right now, in particular the
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dates for the next release and/or candidate.
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* Summary of recent successes and pending work.
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* Reminder re release objectives
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* Reminder re things needing attention, e.g. bug triage, reviews, testing
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of certain things, etc.
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Starting the release phase
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--------------------------
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When it's time to make the release candidate:
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#. We create a new pqm-controlled branch for this release series. The
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branch must be created by Robert Collins on the pqm server.
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This branch means that from the first release candidate onwards,
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general development continues on the trunk, and only
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specifically-targetted fixes go into the release.
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#. Register the branch at <https://launchpad.net/products/bzr/+addbranch>
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#. The revision at the start of that branch is `released
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<releasing.html>`_ as the first RC.
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* `Bazaar Developer Document Catalog <index.html>`_
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* `Releasing Bazaar <releasing.html>`_ -- the process for actually making
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a release or release candidate.
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