lib/django-1.4/docs/internals/release-process.txt - external/googleappengine/python - Git at Google

 ========================
 Django's release process
 ========================

 .. _official-releases:

 Official releases
 =================

 Since version 1.0, Django's release numbering works as follows:

 * Versions are numbered in the form ``A.B`` or ``A.B.C``.

 * ``A`` is the *major version* number, which is only incremented for major
   changes to Django, and these changes are not necessarily
   backwards-compatible. That is, code you wrote for Django 1.2 may break
   when we release Django 2.0.

 * ``B`` is the *minor version* number, which is incremented for large yet
   backwards compatible changes.  Code written for Django 1.2 will continue
   to work under Django 1.3. Exceptions to this rule will be listed in the
   release notes.

 * ``C`` is the *micro version* number, which is incremented for bug and
   security fixes. A new micro-release will be 100% backwards-compatible with
   the previous micro-release. The only exception is when a security issue
   can't be fixed without breaking backwards-compatibility. If this happens,
   the release notes will provide detailed upgrade instructions.

 * In some cases, we'll make alpha, beta, or release candidate releases.
   These are of the form ``A.B alpha/beta/rc N``, which means the ``Nth``
   alpha/beta/release candidate of version ``A.B``.

 In Subversion, each Django release will be tagged under ``tags/releases``.  If
 it's necessary to release a bug fix release or a security release that doesn't
 come from the trunk, we'll copy that tag to ``branches/releases`` to make the
 bug fix release.

 Major releases
 --------------

 Major releases (1.0, 2.0, etc.) will happen very infrequently (think "years",
 not "months"), and will probably represent major, sweeping changes to Django.

 Minor releases
 --------------

 Minor release (1.1, 1.2, etc.) will happen roughly every nine months -- see
 `release process`_, below for details.

 .. _internal-release-deprecation-policy:

 These releases will contain new features, improvements to existing features, and
 such. A minor release may deprecate certain features from previous releases. If a
 feature in version ``A.B`` is deprecated, it will continue to work in version
 ``A.B+1``. In version ``A.B+2``, use of the feature will raise a
 ``DeprecationWarning`` but will continue to work. Version ``A.B+3`` will
 remove the feature entirely.

 So, for example, if we decided to remove a function that existed in Django 1.0:

 * Django 1.1 will contain a backwards-compatible replica of the function
   which will raise a ``PendingDeprecationWarning``. This warning is silent
   by default; you need to explicitly turn on display of these warnings.

 * Django 1.2 will contain the backwards-compatible replica, but the warning
   will be promoted to a full-fledged ``DeprecationWarning``. This warning is
   *loud* by default, and will likely be quite annoying.

 * Django 1.3 will remove the feature outright.

 Micro releases
 --------------

 Micro releases (1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.1, etc.) will be issued at least once half-way
 between minor releases, and probably more often as needed.

 These releases will be 100% compatible with the associated minor release, unless
 this is impossible for security reasons. So the answer to "should I upgrade to
 the latest micro release?" will always be "yes."

 Each minor release of Django will have a "release maintainer" appointed. This
 person will be responsible for making sure that bug fixes are applied to both
 trunk and the maintained micro-release branch. This person will also work with
 the release manager to decide when to release the micro releases.

 Supported versions
 ==================

 At any moment in time, Django's developer team will support a set of releases to
 varying levels:

 * The current development trunk will get new features and bug fixes
   requiring major refactoring.

 * Patches applied to the trunk will also be applied to the last minor
   release, to be released as the next micro release, when they fix critical
   problems:

   * Security issues.

   * Data-loss bugs.

   * Crashing bugs.

   * Major functionality bugs in newly-introduced features.

   The rule of thumb is that fixes will be backported to the last minor
   release for bugs that would have prevented a release in the first place.

 * Security fixes will be applied to the current trunk and the previous two
   minor releases.

 * Documentation fixes generally will be more freely backported to the last
   release branch, at the discretion of the committer, and they don't need to
   meet the "critical fixes only" bar. That's because it's highly advantageous
   to have the docs for the last release be up-to-date and correct, and the
   downside of backporting (risk of introducing regressions) is much less of a
   concern.

 As a concrete example, consider a moment in time halfway between the release of
 Django 1.3 and 1.4. At this point in time:

 * Features will be added to development trunk, to be released as Django 1.4.

 * Critical bug fixes will be applied to a ``1.3.X`` branch, and released as
   1.3.1, 1.3.2, etc.

 * Security fixes will be applied to trunk, a ``1.3.X`` branch and a
   ``1.2.X`` branch. They will trigger the release of ``1.3.1``, ``1.2.1``,
   etc.

 * Documentation fixes will be applied to trunk, and, if easily backported, to
   the ``1.3.X`` branch.

 .. _lts-releases:

 Long-term support (LTS) releases
 ================================

 Additionally, the Django team will occasionally designate certain releases
 to be "Long-term support" (LTS) releases. LTS releases will get security fixes
 applied for a guaranteed period of time, typically 3+ years, regardless of
 the pace of releases afterwards.

 The follow releases have been designated for long-term support:

     * Django 1.4, supported until at least March 2015.

 .. _release-process:

 Release process
 ===============

 Django uses a time-based release schedule, with minor (i.e. 1.1, 1.2, etc.)
 releases every nine months, or more, depending on features.

 After each release, and after a suitable cooling-off period of a few weeks, the
 core development team will examine the landscape and announce a timeline for the
 next release. Most releases will be scheduled in the 6-9 month range, but if we
 have bigger features to development we might schedule a longer period to allow
 for more ambitious work.

 Release cycle
 -------------

 Each release cycle will be split into three periods, each lasting roughly
 one-third of the cycle:

 Phase one: feature proposal
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The first phase of the release process will be devoted to figuring out what
 features to include in the next version. This should include a good deal of
 preliminary work on those features -- working code trumps grand design.

 At the end of part one, the core developers will propose a feature list for the
 upcoming release. This will be broken into:

 * "Must-have": critical features that will delay the release if not finished
 * "Maybe" features: that will be pushed to the next release if not finished
 * "Not going to happen": features explicitly deferred to a later release.

 Anything that hasn't got at least some work done by the end of the first third
 isn't eligible for the next release; a design alone isn't sufficient.

 Phase two: development
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The second third of the release schedule is the "heads-down" working period.
 Using the roadmap produced at the end of phase one, we'll all work very hard to
 get everything on it done.

 Longer release schedules will likely spend more than a third of the time in this
 phase.

 At the end of phase two, any unfinished "maybe" features will be postponed until
 the next release. Though it shouldn't happen, any "must-have" features will
 extend phase two, and thus postpone the final release.

 Phase two will culminate with an alpha release.

 Phase three: bugfixes
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The last third of a release is spent fixing bugs -- no new features will be
 accepted during this time. We'll release a beta release about halfway through,
 and an rc complete with string freeze two weeks before the end of the schedule.

 Bug-fix releases
 ----------------

 After a minor release (e.g. 1.1), the previous release will go into bug-fix
 mode.

 A branch will be created of the form ``branches/releases/1.0.X`` to track
 bug-fixes to the previous release. Critical bugs fixed on trunk must
 *also* be fixed on the bug-fix branch; this means that commits need to cleanly
 separate bug fixes from feature additions. The developer who commits a fix to
 trunk will be responsible for also applying the fix to the current bug-fix
 branch.  Each bug-fix branch will have a maintainer who will work with the
 committers to keep them honest on backporting bug fixes.

 How this all fits together
 --------------------------

 Let's look at a hypothetical example for how this all first together. Imagine,
 if you will, a point about halfway between 1.1 and 1.2. At this point,
 development will be happening in a bunch of places:

 * On trunk, development towards 1.2 proceeds with small additions, bugs
   fixes, etc. being checked in daily.

 * On the branch "branches/releases/1.1.X", fixes for critical bugs found in
   the 1.1 release are checked in as needed. At some point, this branch will
   be released as "1.1.1", "1.1.2", etc.

 * On the branch "branches/releases/1.0.X", security fixes are made if
   needed and released as "1.0.2", "1.0.3", etc.

 * On feature branches, development of major features is done. These
   branches will be merged into trunk before the end of phase two.
	========================
	Django's release process
	========================

	.. _official-releases:

	Official releases
	=================

	Since version 1.0, Django's release numbering works as follows:

	* Versions are numbered in the form ``A.B`` or ``A.B.C``.

	* ``A`` is the major version number, which is only incremented for major
	changes to Django, and these changes are not necessarily
	backwards-compatible. That is, code you wrote for Django 1.2 may break
	when we release Django 2.0.

	* ``B`` is the minor version number, which is incremented for large yet
	backwards compatible changes. Code written for Django 1.2 will continue
	to work under Django 1.3. Exceptions to this rule will be listed in the
	release notes.

	* ``C`` is the micro version number, which is incremented for bug and
	security fixes. A new micro-release will be 100% backwards-compatible with
	the previous micro-release. The only exception is when a security issue
	can't be fixed without breaking backwards-compatibility. If this happens,
	the release notes will provide detailed upgrade instructions.

	* In some cases, we'll make alpha, beta, or release candidate releases.
	These are of the form ``A.B alpha/beta/rc N``, which means the ``Nth``
	alpha/beta/release candidate of version ``A.B``.

	In Subversion, each Django release will be tagged under ``tags/releases``. If
	it's necessary to release a bug fix release or a security release that doesn't
	come from the trunk, we'll copy that tag to ``branches/releases`` to make the
	bug fix release.

	Major releases
	--------------

	Major releases (1.0, 2.0, etc.) will happen very infrequently (think "years",
	not "months"), and will probably represent major, sweeping changes to Django.

	Minor releases
	--------------

	Minor release (1.1, 1.2, etc.) will happen roughly every nine months -- see
	`release process`_, below for details.

	.. _internal-release-deprecation-policy:

	These releases will contain new features, improvements to existing features, and
	such. A minor release may deprecate certain features from previous releases. If a
	feature in version ``A.B`` is deprecated, it will continue to work in version
	``A.B+1``. In version ``A.B+2``, use of the feature will raise a
	``DeprecationWarning`` but will continue to work. Version ``A.B+3`` will
	remove the feature entirely.

	So, for example, if we decided to remove a function that existed in Django 1.0:

	* Django 1.1 will contain a backwards-compatible replica of the function
	which will raise a ``PendingDeprecationWarning``. This warning is silent
	by default; you need to explicitly turn on display of these warnings.

	* Django 1.2 will contain the backwards-compatible replica, but the warning
	will be promoted to a full-fledged ``DeprecationWarning``. This warning is
	loud by default, and will likely be quite annoying.

	* Django 1.3 will remove the feature outright.

	Micro releases
	--------------

	Micro releases (1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.1, etc.) will be issued at least once half-way
	between minor releases, and probably more often as needed.

	These releases will be 100% compatible with the associated minor release, unless
	this is impossible for security reasons. So the answer to "should I upgrade to
	the latest micro release?" will always be "yes."

	Each minor release of Django will have a "release maintainer" appointed. This
	person will be responsible for making sure that bug fixes are applied to both
	trunk and the maintained micro-release branch. This person will also work with
	the release manager to decide when to release the micro releases.

	Supported versions
	==================

	At any moment in time, Django's developer team will support a set of releases to
	varying levels:

	* The current development trunk will get new features and bug fixes
	requiring major refactoring.

	* Patches applied to the trunk will also be applied to the last minor
	release, to be released as the next micro release, when they fix critical
	problems:

	* Security issues.

	* Data-loss bugs.

	* Crashing bugs.

	* Major functionality bugs in newly-introduced features.

	The rule of thumb is that fixes will be backported to the last minor
	release for bugs that would have prevented a release in the first place.

	* Security fixes will be applied to the current trunk and the previous two
	minor releases.

	* Documentation fixes generally will be more freely backported to the last
	release branch, at the discretion of the committer, and they don't need to
	meet the "critical fixes only" bar. That's because it's highly advantageous
	to have the docs for the last release be up-to-date and correct, and the
	downside of backporting (risk of introducing regressions) is much less of a
	concern.

	As a concrete example, consider a moment in time halfway between the release of
	Django 1.3 and 1.4. At this point in time:

	* Features will be added to development trunk, to be released as Django 1.4.

	* Critical bug fixes will be applied to a ``1.3.X`` branch, and released as
	1.3.1, 1.3.2, etc.

	* Security fixes will be applied to trunk, a ``1.3.X`` branch and a
	``1.2.X`` branch. They will trigger the release of ``1.3.1``, ``1.2.1``,
	etc.

	* Documentation fixes will be applied to trunk, and, if easily backported, to
	the ``1.3.X`` branch.

	.. _lts-releases:

	Long-term support (LTS) releases
	================================

	Additionally, the Django team will occasionally designate certain releases
	to be "Long-term support" (LTS) releases. LTS releases will get security fixes
	applied for a guaranteed period of time, typically 3+ years, regardless of
	the pace of releases afterwards.

	The follow releases have been designated for long-term support:

	* Django 1.4, supported until at least March 2015.

	.. _release-process:

	Release process
	===============

	Django uses a time-based release schedule, with minor (i.e. 1.1, 1.2, etc.)
	releases every nine months, or more, depending on features.

	After each release, and after a suitable cooling-off period of a few weeks, the
	core development team will examine the landscape and announce a timeline for the
	next release. Most releases will be scheduled in the 6-9 month range, but if we
	have bigger features to development we might schedule a longer period to allow
	for more ambitious work.

	Release cycle
	-------------

	Each release cycle will be split into three periods, each lasting roughly
	one-third of the cycle:

	Phase one: feature proposal
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	The first phase of the release process will be devoted to figuring out what
	features to include in the next version. This should include a good deal of
	preliminary work on those features -- working code trumps grand design.

	At the end of part one, the core developers will propose a feature list for the
	upcoming release. This will be broken into:

	* "Must-have": critical features that will delay the release if not finished
	* "Maybe" features: that will be pushed to the next release if not finished
	* "Not going to happen": features explicitly deferred to a later release.

	Anything that hasn't got at least some work done by the end of the first third
	isn't eligible for the next release; a design alone isn't sufficient.

	Phase two: development
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	The second third of the release schedule is the "heads-down" working period.
	Using the roadmap produced at the end of phase one, we'll all work very hard to
	get everything on it done.

	Longer release schedules will likely spend more than a third of the time in this
	phase.

	At the end of phase two, any unfinished "maybe" features will be postponed until
	the next release. Though it shouldn't happen, any "must-have" features will
	extend phase two, and thus postpone the final release.

	Phase two will culminate with an alpha release.

	Phase three: bugfixes
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	The last third of a release is spent fixing bugs -- no new features will be
	accepted during this time. We'll release a beta release about halfway through,
	and an rc complete with string freeze two weeks before the end of the schedule.

	Bug-fix releases
	----------------

	After a minor release (e.g. 1.1), the previous release will go into bug-fix
	mode.

	A branch will be created of the form ``branches/releases/1.0.X`` to track
	bug-fixes to the previous release. Critical bugs fixed on trunk must
	also be fixed on the bug-fix branch; this means that commits need to cleanly
	separate bug fixes from feature additions. The developer who commits a fix to
	trunk will be responsible for also applying the fix to the current bug-fix
	branch. Each bug-fix branch will have a maintainer who will work with the
	committers to keep them honest on backporting bug fixes.

	How this all fits together
	--------------------------

	Let's look at a hypothetical example for how this all first together. Imagine,
	if you will, a point about halfway between 1.1 and 1.2. At this point,
	development will be happening in a bunch of places:

	* On trunk, development towards 1.2 proceeds with small additions, bugs
	fixes, etc. being checked in daily.

	* On the branch "branches/releases/1.1.X", fixes for critical bugs found in
	the 1.1 release are checked in as needed. At some point, this branch will
	be released as "1.1.1", "1.1.2", etc.

	* On the branch "branches/releases/1.0.X", security fixes are made if
	needed and released as "1.0.2", "1.0.3", etc.

	* On feature branches, development of major features is done. These
	branches will be merged into trunk before the end of phase two.