1.8.7 maintenance release?

I still have much to learn.
Why have a 1.8.7 maintenance release after a 2.0 stable release?

In advance, thank you for sharing your knowledge as to why.

[Nathan Schulte]

I guess it's because wine supports multiple concurrent releases.

--
Nate

On Mar 2, 2017 12:48,  wrote:
> I still have much to learn.
> Why have a 1.8.7 maintenance release after a 2.0 stable release?
>
> In advance, thank you for sharing your knowledge as to why.

[Michael Stefaniuc]

On 03/02/2017 07:50 PM, Nathan Schulte wrote:
> I guess it's because wine supports multiple concurrent releases.

No we don't do that. There won't be a 1.8.8.

The main reasons why I cut a final 1.8.7 release after the 2.0 came out:

- Current supported distribution versions won't upgrade from 1.8.x to
2.0. They will (hopefully) do the switch in their next version.

- Ubuntu 16.10 LTS came out with Wine 1.6.2 even though 1.8.3 was out
already. So I wouldn't wonder if they'll use 1.8.7 in their next LTS...
I don't particularly care about Ubuntu but that's how most of our new
users make their first contact with Wine.

- It is very easy for me to do an old stable release after the new
stable was cut. With the code freeze prior to a new stable release only
small bug fixes and most importantly regression fixes go in. So there is
a high density of good commits to cherry pick for the old stable.

bye
    michael
> --
> Nate
>
> On Mar 2, 2017 12:48, <[e-mail]
> > wrote:
> I still have much to learn.
> Why have a 1.8.7 maintenance release after a 2.0 stable release?
>
> In advance, thank you for sharing your knowledge as to why.

[Jens Reyer]

Hi Michael,

it's long overdue: thanks for your work on stable releases!

On 03/03/2017 10:56 AM, Michael Stefaniuc wrote:
> On 03/02/2017 07:50 PM, Nathan Schulte wrote:
> - Current supported distribution versions won't upgrade from 1.8.x to
>
> 2.0. They will (hopefully) do the switch in their next version.

Indeed Wine 2.0 was deemed as too late for the main Wine packages in
Debian Stretch (currently in freeze).  So I'm trying to get 1.8.7 in
there, for now I uploaded it to experimental.

If this works, I'd also try to get Wine stable updates in Debian stable
updates in the future.  However this would first happen with maybe Wine
4.0.x for Debian Buster (2019).
> - Ubuntu 16.10 LTS came out with Wine 1.6.2 even though 1.8.3 was out
>
> already. So I wouldn't wonder if they'll use 1.8.7 in their next LTS...
> I don't particularly care about Ubuntu but that's how most of our new
> users make their first contact with Wine.

LTS was 16.04, not 16.10.  AIUI 16.04 was released with 1.6.2 because
the old Ubuntu maintainer(s) stopped working on Wine.

Then several people started to work on bringing the Debian packages to
Ubuntu.  I'm working closely with them, and since 16.10 we succeeded in
having the up to date Debian packages in Ubuntu.  Work is also going on
to get older versions updated, but progress is slow there.

17.04 will most probably use 1.8.7 (currently 1.8.6), even if they have
to pick it from Debian experimental, not Debian testing/unstable.
Eventually we might even get 2.0 there, but with Debian being in freeze
that's not trivial - so thanks again for 1.8.7.
> - It is very easy for me to do an old stable release after the new
>
> stable was cut. With the code freeze prior to a new stable release only
> small bug fixes and most importantly regression fixes go in. So there is
> a high density of good commits to cherry pick for the old stable.

This makes me a lot more comfortable in pushing 1.8.7 now :)

Currently the bug list for target_milestone=1.8.x is empty.[1]  Would
you tag any regression in that way (even for the now "finished" 1.8.x
series), or what's the best way for me to learn about regressions in the
stable releases?

Do you plan to roughly stick with the bi-monthly release schedule?  So
I'd roughly assume a 2.0.1 in April?

Greets!
jre

[1]: https://bugs.winehq.org/buglist.cgi?target_milestone=1.8.x

[Michael Stefaniuc]

Hello Jens,

On 03/13/2017 05:01 PM, Jens Reyer wrote:
> it's long overdue: thanks for your work on stable releases!
>
> On 03/03/2017 10:56 AM, Michael Stefaniuc wrote:
> > On 03/02/2017 07:50 PM, Nathan Schulte wrote:
> > - Current supported distribution versions won't upgrade from 1.8.x to
> >
> > 2.0. They will (hopefully) do the switch in their next version.
>
> Indeed Wine 2.0 was deemed as too late for the main Wine packages in
> Debian Stretch (currently in freeze).  So I'm trying to get 1.8.7 in
> there, for now I uploaded it to experimental.
>
> If this works, I'd also try to get Wine stable updates in Debian stable
> updates in the future.  However this would first happen with maybe Wine
> 4.0.x for Debian Buster (2019).
> > - Ubuntu 16.10 LTS came out with Wine 1.6.2 even though 1.8.3 was out
> >
> > already. So I wouldn't wonder if they'll use 1.8.7 in their next LTS...
> > I don't particularly care about Ubuntu but that's how most of our new
> > users make their first contact with Wine.
>
> LTS was 16.04, not 16.10.  AIUI 16.04 was released with 1.6.2 because

I was already thinking ahead that 16.10 moved to the 1.8.x branch while
my fingers were still typing above sentence.
> the old Ubuntu maintainer(s) stopped working on Wine.
>
> Then several people started to work on bringing the Debian packages to
> Ubuntu.  I'm working closely with them, and since 16.10 we succeeded in
> having the up to date Debian packages in Ubuntu.  Work is also going on
> to get older versions updated, but progress is slow there.
>
> 17.04 will most probably use 1.8.7 (currently 1.8.6), even if they have
> to pick it from Debian experimental, not Debian testing/unstable.
> Eventually we might even get 2.0 there, but with Debian being in freeze
> that's not trivial - so thanks again for 1.8.7.

You're welcome,
> > - It is very easy for me to do an old stable release after the new
> >
> > stable was cut. With the code freeze prior to a new stable release only
> > small bug fixes and most importantly regression fixes go in. So there is
> > a high density of good commits to cherry pick for the old stable.
>
> This makes me a lot more comfortable in pushing 1.8.7 now :)
>
> Currently the bug list for target_milestone=1.8.x is empty.[1]  Would

Correct. I removed all the 1.8.x milestones as those were all bugs that
I kept deferring from one release to another. For various reasons: too
complex, introduced a regression, too risky, etc.
> you tag any regression in that way (even for the now "finished" 1.8.x
> series), or what's the best way for me to learn about regressions in the
> stable releases?

I don't mind if people tag regressions that are specific to 1.8.7 with
the 1.8.x milestone.

But a search like this could work too:
https://bugs.winehq.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NE...

If there is interest from other distributions too I can keep an 1.8.x
branch on my stable git tree at https://github.com/mstefani/wine-stable
as a synchronization point with patches that various distributions add
on top of 1.8.7. But if it is just Debian and Ubuntu, I guess the Debian
wine-1.8.7.deb will be good enough.
> Do you plan to roughly stick with the bi-monthly release schedule?  So
> I'd roughly assume a 2.0.1 in April?

Heh, I kinda initially planned for a 4-6 weeks cadence for 1.8.x but due
to time constraints it ended up being a bi-monthly schedule.
As that seems to have worked quite well I'll stick to a 6-10 weeks
release schedule. Lower bound if I have enough (~50) interesting (aka
not stubs, GPU card additions, documentation, small translation)
patches. The upper bound is a timeout to release whatever I have at that
point.

bye
    michael