Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: [RFC V2] Create supported branch from edk2-stable* tag (Required to address critical bug BZ3111)

["Bret Barkelew" <bret.barkelew@microsoft.com>]

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“I agree with Liming that stable branches should have a predefined
lifetime. Keeping stable branches regression-free is very difficult and
ungrateful work, and the community should not have expectations that
we're going to do "LTS" branches.”

Seconded. We actually had to update our release process with this blurb recently:
https://microsoft.github.io/mu/How/release_process/#post-lts-and-archiving

- Bret

From: Laszlo Ersek<mailto:lersek@redhat.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2020 5:50 AM
To: Kinney, Michael D<mailto:michael.d.kinney@intel.com>; devel@edk2.groups.io<mailto:devel@edk2.groups.io>; rfc@edk2.groups.io<mailto:rfc@edk2.groups.io>; gaoliming@byosoft.com.cn<mailto:gaoliming@byosoft.com.cn>; Andrew Fish (afish@apple.com)<mailto:afish@apple.com>; Leif Lindholm<mailto:leif@nuviainc.com>; Sean Brogan<mailto:sean.brogan@microsoft.com>; Bret Barkelew<mailto:Bret.Barkelew@microsoft.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [RFC V2] Create supported branch from edk2-stable* tag (Required to address critical bug BZ3111)

On 12/16/20 01:24, Kinney, Michael D wrote:
> Hello,
>
> The following bug has been fixed on edk2/master
>
>     https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbugzilla.tianocore.org%2Fshow_bug.cgi%3Fid%3D3111&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cbret.barkelew%40microsoft.com%7C092cd97468a645f68e4308d8a292a636%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C637438098026646126%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=wE%2B9eA3XrRxS58KUk6DbFZmvX9nvmWopzGoVRN5713k%3D&amp;reserved=0
>     https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Ftianocore%2Fedk2%2Fpull%2F1226&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cbret.barkelew%40microsoft.com%7C092cd97468a645f68e4308d8a292a636%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C637438098026646126%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=MnXglF%2FvtUDAouXJvBUIRFq7TuPL2dKXohXwcEuY3zc%3D&amp;reserved=0
>
> This bug is also considered a critical bug against edk2-stable202011.  The behavior
> of the Variable Lock Protocol was changed in a non-backwards compatible manner in
> edk2-stable202011 and this is impacting some downstream platforms.  The following
> 2 commits on edk2/master restore the original behavior of the Variable Lock Protocol.
>
>     https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Ftianocore%2Fedk2%2Fpull%2F1226%2Fcommits%2F893cfe2847b83da74f53858d6acaa15a348bad7c&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cbret.barkelew%40microsoft.com%7C092cd97468a645f68e4308d8a292a636%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C637438098026646126%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=h19eR7KFYlerrva%2FVGMDb7DMVIUihINgAlOh96Hb2xI%3D&amp;reserved=0
>     https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Ftianocore%2Fedk2%2Fpull%2F1226%2Fcommits%2F16491ba6a6e9a91cedeeed45bc0fbdfde49f7968&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cbret.barkelew%40microsoft.com%7C092cd97468a645f68e4308d8a292a636%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C637438098026656126%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=8nCkmGD5jRyfrsMID0ESAcUb8plWrRkFafvhPiS2Zo8%3D&amp;reserved=0
>
> The request here is to create a supported branch from edk2-stable202011 tag and apply
> these 2 commits as critical bug fixes on the supported branch.
>
> Since we started using the edk2-stable* tag process, there has not been a request to create
> a supported branch from one of those tags.  As a result, there are a couple opens that
> need to be addressed:
>
> 1) Supported branch naming convention.
>
>     Proposal: stable/<YYYY><MM>
>     Example:  stable/202011
>
> 2) CI requirements for supported branches.
>
>     Proposal: Update .azurepipelines yml files to also trigger on stable/* branches
>     and update GitHub settings so stable/* branches are protected branches.
>
> 3) Release requirements for supported branches.
>
>    Proposal: If there are a significant number of critical fixes applied to
>    a stable/edk2-stable* branch, then a request for a release can be made that
>    would trigger focused testing of the supported branch and creation of a new
>    release.  If all testing passes, then a tag is created on the stable/edk2-stable*
>    branch and a release is created on GitHub that summarizes the set of critical
>    fixes and the testing performed.
>
>    Proposal: edk2-stable<YYYY><MM>.<XX>
>    Example : edk2-stable201111.01
>
> Please let me know if you have any feedback or comments on this proposal.  The goal
> is to close on this topic this week.

- Looks good; just a typo in the example: "edk2-stable201111.01" should
use 2020, not 2011.


- I agree with Liming that stable branches should have a predefined
lifetime. Keeping stable branches regression-free is very difficult and
ungrateful work, and the community should not have expectations that
we're going to do "LTS" branches. That's too resource hungry; companies
have dedicated "maintenance engineer" positions for that.

Here's an example stable process:

https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgit.qemu.org%2F%3Fp%3Dqemu.git%3Ba%3Dblob_plain%3Bf%3Ddocs%2Fdevel%2Fstable-process.rst%3Bhb%3DHEAD&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cbret.barkelew%40microsoft.com%7C092cd97468a645f68e4308d8a292a636%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C637438098026656126%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=bOmSbEHuU%2BqLr3mdmhP%2Foq%2BR7yy%2BVNUWbG367yhFwQE%3D&amp;reserved=0

I would recommend that, initially, we only promise support for the last
stable tag's branch.


- Including a unit test (if it exists) with the actual bugfix on a
stable branch seems important to me.

Thanks
Laszlo


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