Re: [edk2-devel] Patch List for 202002 stable tag

["Laszlo Ersek" <lersek@redhat.com>]

On 02/27/20 17:23, Leif Lindholm wrote:
> Hi Liming,
> 
> On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 16:06:22 +0000, Liming Gao wrote:
>> Stewards:
>>   I update the patch lists and status. Based on current information,
>>   only one patch (item 5) needs catch this stable tag. Its fix is
>>   clear, and risk is low. So, I think we can still keep current
>>   planning to create stable tag edk2-stable202002 on 2020 Feb 28th
>>   (UTC – 8). If you think the stable tag needs to be delay for few
>>   days, please reply the mail before Feb 28th (00:00:00 UTC-8).
>>
>>   1.  https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/54665 [edk2-devel] [PATCH v2 1/1] EmbeddedPkg: Fixed Asserts in SCT Runtime Services test.
>> [Liming] This patch is still under review. So, it will not catch this stable tag.
>>
>>   1.  https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/54693 [edk2-stable202002][edk2-devel] [PATCH v2 1/1] MdeModulePkg/Pci: Fixed Asserts in SCT PCIIO Protocol Test.
> 
> Unrelated to the release process, only the formatting:
> It looks like you are doing ordered lists using markdown syntax
> (1.). This renders in plain text email simply as all items being 1.
> 
>> [Liming] The patch has passed review. Package maintainer thinks this is an enhancement. It will be added after stable tag.
>>
>>   1.  https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/54122 [PATCH 1/1] ShellPkg: Add support for input with separately reported modifiers
>> [Liming] The discussion shows this change needs UEFI spec clarification. So, it may not be resolved in short team. It will not catch this stable tag. The discussion is in BZ 2510.
>>
>>   1.  https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/54797 [PATCH 0/2] UefiCpuPkg/Library: Fix bug in MpInitLib
>> [Liming] The solution is under discussion (BZ 2556). The submitter requests this issue to be fixed happen reasonably soon. So, it may not catch this stable tag.
>>
>>   1.  https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/54992 [Patch 1/1][edk2-stable202002]BaseTools: Fixed a regression issue in Makefile for incremental build
>> [Liming] This patch has passed review. This regression causes the basic incremental build not work with VS nmake tool. The fix is clear. So, it need to catch this stable tag.
> 
> I agree it needs to catch the stable tag. If it affects only VS builds
> then I am not going to insist on extending the hard freeze, but I
> (technically on holiday today/tomorrow) don't have time to dig much
> deeper into it.
> 
> However, I think the process is pretty clear that this *should* extend
> the hard freeze.
> 
> I will note that from the trail (commitdate of 818283de3f6d until
> BZ2563 was raised) it appears that detecting this bug itself, which
> went in two days before the soft freeze, took 15 days.

I agree with Liming's analysis on the patches (i.e., what goes in and
what gets postponed), and I agree with Leif that we should extend the
hard freeze by at least a couple of days.

This is not unusual. Originally I thought that edk2 freeze and release
dates were set in stone, but then Mike explained to me that that had
never been the intent. And other open source projects do several
pre-releases (rc0, rc1, .... pre-releases with "release critical" (rc)
bug fixes), before a final release. For example, QEMU regularly plans
rc0..rc2 or even rc3, and then *optionally* adds an rc4 if even rc3
receives significant bugfixes. The idea is that the final release / tag
should be preceded by a silent / calm period, where we've waited a few
days and become reasonably convinced that "OK, there's nothing else we
should obviously fix right now".

I wouldn't immediately suggest a full week extension, but maybe until
March 4th (middle of next week)?

Thanks
Laszlo