[Gluster-users] Announcing release 3.11 : Scope, schedule and feature tracking

[Shyam]

Hi,

With release 3.10 shipped [1], it is time to set the dates for release 
3.11 (and subsequently 4.0).

This mail has the following sections, so please read or revisit as needed,
   - Release 3.11 dates (the schedule)
   - 3.11 focus areas
   - 3.11 feature proposal changes (IMP: if you are proposing/delivering 
features 3.11 onward)
   - Release owners

We should be transitioning to using github for feature reporting and 
tracking, more fully from this release. So once again, if there exists 
any confusion on that front, reach out to the lists for clarification.

*Release 3.11 dates:*
Based on our release schedule [2], 3.11 would be 3 months from the 3.10 
release and would be a Short Term Maintenance (STM) release.

This puts 3.11 schedule as (working from the release date backwards):
- Release: May 30th, 2017
- Branching: April 27th, 2017

*3.11 focus areas:*
As maintainers of gluster, we want to harden testing around the various 
gluster features in this release. Towards this the focus area for this 
release are,

1) Testing improvements in Gluster
   - Primary focus would be to get automated test cases to determine 
release health, rather than repeating a manual exercise every 3 months
   - Further, we would also attempt to focus on maturing Glusto[7] for 
this, and other needs (as much as possible)

2) Merge all (or as much as possible) Facebook patches into master, and 
hence into release 3.11
   - Facebook has (as announced earlier [3]) started posting their 
patches mainline, and this needs some attention to make it into master

- We will still retain features that slipped 3.10 and hence were moved 
to 3.11 (see [4] for the list).

- We also are *not* stating *no* to net new features, so if there are 
any that you are working on do let us know if they will land by 3.11 
time frame.

*3.11 feature proposal changes:*
3.11 Roadmap is being tracked here [4], as was the case for 3.10.

To propose features for 3.11, here is a short how to,
   - Create an issue for the proposed feature in glusterfs github [5]

   - Propose and get your feature accepted for a release, by posting to 
gluster-devel at gluster.org with the relevant issue # and details

   - Use issue # in all commits against that feature (including commits 
to glusterdocs, glusterfs-specs and glusterfs repositories)

   - Reference the issue in commits, as “Updates #n” or “Fixes #n”, use 
Fixes with the last commit for the feature, so that when that gets 
merged, the issue is automatically closed

   - Reference the issue from non-glusterfs repositories as 
“{Fixes|Updates} gluster/gusterfs#n”

   - If a feature needs to be backported (which should ideally never 
happen) then create bugzilla for the same, and follow the bug workflow 
of backporting the same

A more detailed version on feature proposal and github usage for the 
same is present here [6]. This would get converted into gluster 
"Developer Guide" docs sometime soon.

*Release owners:*
   - Primary: Shyam <srangana at redhat.com>
   - Assisted by: <open, please volunteer>
   - Assisted by: <open, please volunteer>

Shyam

[1] 3.10 release announcement: 
http://lists.gluster.org/pipermail/gluster-devel/2017-February/052188.html

[2] Gluster release schedule: 
https://www.gluster.org/community/release-schedule/

[3] Mail regarding facebook patches: 
http://lists.gluster.org/pipermail/gluster-devel/2016-December/051784.html

[4] Release scope: https://github.com/gluster/glusterfs/projects/1

[5] glusterfs github issues: https://github.com/gluster/glusterfs/issues

[6] github issues for features and major fixes: 
https://hackmd.io/s/BkgH8sdtg#

[7] Glusto tests: https://github.com/gluster/glusto-tests