[Qemu-devel] proposed release timetable for 2.8

[Peter Maydell]

I know 2.7 isn't quite out the door yet, but I figured we should
kick off the discussion of 2.8's schedule. At the QEMU Summit there
was some discussion on how we're doing with releases, and I think
the consensus view was that we should try to cut down the softfreeze
period and also be stricter about (a) making sure pull requests get
in in a timely way before rc0 and (b) we don't take new features
during softfreeze.

(I'm not entirely sure I have those right, and in any case they're
not pre-decided conclusions, so corrections and further opinion
welcome.)

As a strawman, here's a timetable which results in a final
release in December at the usual sort of time (ie allowing for
the usual slippage without it hitting the holiday season):


2016-10-25 softfreeze, if you think we need 3 weeks, or:
2016-11-01 if you think we can do a 2 week softfreeze
2016-11-08 deadline for getting pull requests on list before hardfreeze?
2016-11-15 rc0 (start of hardfreeze)
2016-11-22 rc1
2016-11-29 rc2
2016-12-06 rc3
2016-12-13 final v2.8.0

I haven't been particularly happy with the 2.7 release process,
which has dragged on a lot due to some combination of:
 * late-breaking security issues
 * KVM Forum timing (we were optimistic about getting the
   release out beforehand and didn't manage it)
 * a bunch of bugs either discovered late or without patches
   on list and in tree very quickly
I'm not sure how best to improve things though.

Side note: I will not be around for most of November so
Stefan has kindly agreed to manage the merging and tagging
work this time around.

thanks
-- PMM