Re: [exim-dev] Survey

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Author: Viktor Dukhovni
Date:  
To: exim-dev
Subject: Re: [exim-dev] Survey
On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 10:30:19AM -0700, Todd Lyons wrote:

> It's been 6 months since the last release of Exim 4.82. There has
> been a flurry of bug-fixing, refactoring, and a few new features.
> There's not really any major new feature, but the release guidelines
> do suggest that every 6 months we release a new version with whatever
> is in the tree.
>
> Can we get some votes yea or nay for beginning a release cycle for Exim 4.83?


Does Exim have just a single linear feature release sequence with
no bug-fix stable releases (no new features) and no development
snapshot releases?

In a mature product like an MTA, it seems prudent to separate patch
releases (that happen intermittently when a sufficient threshold
of bug-fix count or criticality is reached) from periodic feature
releases, and progressive development releases.

A six month production release cycle seems to long for some some
bug fixes and too short to develop more complex new features (e.g.
DANE). Snapshots help to make sure that incremental progress is
not disruptive, and the code is essentially at production quality
at all times, just not necessarily feature stable.

Yes, I am describing the Postfix release model, and of course that's
not the only way to get things done, but it seems to work reasonably
well. So I would suggest 4.82.1 if there are no new features, just
fixes, and release 4.83 when new features are ready for prime-time.

-- 
    Viktor.