Just Curious (regarding ubuntu development rolling)

[craig10x]

I didn't follow the latest discussions at the ubuntu developers meetings...anything new about adding that easier "rolling" way to use ubuntu development that they had previously discussed?
Have they decided on the method and when it would be implemented?

I wasn't sure whether it was discussed but i am curious about it...

Thanks

[Elfy]

I think it is somewhere in this

http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-1305/me...ease-planning/

[deadite66]

From what i've read it seems they are releasing monthly point releases from the development branch and these "should" be stable.

[grahammechanical]

You know how we change from one development release to the next by changing the URL of the sources lists? Such as changing them from raring to saucy? Well the rolling development branch, as I call it, will be given a name, such as TIP, NEXT or ROLLING (this bit is still be be decided) and that name will be the name in our sources lists URL. At the repository end there will be a sym-link that points to the correct repository. Then when 13.04 is released the sym-link will be changed at the repository end to point to the repositories of TT (14.04 to be). We will not have to change anything.

Implementation? In my mind the logical time will be as soon as 13.04 is released. So, we change to TT (14.04) development cycle and it continues from there on to 14.10, 15.04.

Regards.

[craig10x]

@grahammechanical: you meant when 13.10 is released it will change to TT or whatever other name they decide as you mentioned (starting with the 14.04 development cycle) right?
I figured that was just a typo

So, in essence, i guess that would mean that when the first 14.04 daily builds appear (right after 13.10's release) it would have that new permanent name assigned to it, so that from that point on, you would no longer need to upgrade into the next development cycle....am i reading that right?

Also, i am listening to that video right now...it also sounds like we would get monthly stable updates within the rolling development...so i guess that means instead of getting constant daily updating it would be more like a monthly update package coming into it? (sort of the way linux mint's LMDE works)...or perhaps i misunderstood what they were saying...

[Chanath]

Simply by changing the repos to the latest testing, you are on rolling. When Saucy is finally released, you change the repo name in the sources.list to the next one.

[cariboo]

For those of you that don't have etherpad access, these are some of the points that were discussed:

This is expected to be fairly easy technically. The messaging is important.

Things we could do to encourage folks to track dev releases (outside of improving quality and providing a devel suite symlink):
* software-properties option to always stick to development release (make sure that switching back works!); only show this on people already on the devel release though
* website messaging?
* uploader support for uploading to current

Might have to fix various pieces to be able to install from this symlink

Would uploads be directed at the devel symlink? Not sure whether this is contentious or not; probably minor

Some developers are concerned by the number of releases they have to target; one of the reasons is that the uploader is kept open as to support commercial projects/PPAs

market to app developers: developer.ubuntu.com

Implementation:

Arrange for there to be a symlink from something like 'devel' 'current' or similar to the current development release. This would be made via a small patch to launchpad. We would want to be able to install from this as well.


For developing on 'devel' releases, all the build artifacts would need to know about it: sbuild, schroot, chdist, etc.

Also what about d/changelogs? Would they name the current release or 'devel'? If the latter, it would be more difficult to know when the package was uploaded for. == was covered above ("uploads directed at the devel symlink"); need to decide whether we want that on e.g. ubuntu-devel@ or such

It is unclear when 'current' should move from raring to saucy in the cycle. We nominally say that the release is not ready for use until we have uploaded the rcompilers etc at the beginning of the cycle, ie. till when it comes out of pre-release-freeze at the beginning. We might want to hold the move until that kind of level of readiness before we move it over.

Some discussion on making sure the name helps to reinforce the SLA we are driving at. xorg-edgers put up as a good example. We must avoid any name from debian (which kills testing and unstable).

Would want to allow reverting back to the current devel release and stick to it; probably in software properties too

Candidate names:
* development
* current
* tip
* latest
* head
* master
* devel
* trunk
* rolling
* bikeshed
* next
* nonameyet

Excluded:
* sid, testing, unstable or other Debian names
* rawhide
* factory

Work Items:
[rick-rickspencer3] pick a name for the release and bring to TB
[rick-rickspencer3] follow up with the community team on this
[cjwatson] chase someone to implement software-properties changes
[cjwatson] talk to Kubuntu guys about equivalent Qt version

[craig10x]

Very Informative.....i think what i am most confused about though is this....if i say, installed saucy development (13.10), will they be updating the name in your software sources to whatever that new name will be, and then you'd just smoothly switch over to 14.04, or would you have to do something yourself....

I would imagine that when 14.04 development starts, it would already have the new name, but i was wondering what would happen with those currently running 13.10...how it would for them...

I'm also confused about whether the updates for the rolling development continue to be daily or monthly as they did mention something about monthly stable snapshots as it were...

Lastly, it sounds like you'd always be able to choose between making it rolling or switching it back to non-rolling...i wondered about that also...

[Elfy]

Who can tell - until they actually tell us what they've decided then this thread will go round and round in circles like your last one on exactly the same subject

[craig10x]

Yeah, I guess so, Elfy...I was just trying to decipher the information...hopefully we will get more clarity soon...sounds interesting though, and i just like to keep on top of it
I appreciate the link you gave to the conference video, by watching, at least i got SOME idea of what they are going to be doing...