draft release documentation

docsite/rst/developing_releases.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+Releases
+========
+
+.. contents:: Topics
+   :local:
+
+.. schedule::
+
+Release Schedule
+````````````````
+Ansible is on a 'flexible' 4 month release schedule, sometimes this can be extended if there is a major change that requires a longer cycle (i.e. 2.0 core rewrite).
+Currently modules get released at the same time as the main Ansible repo, even though they are separated into ansible-modules-core and ansible-modules-extras.
+
+The major features and bugs fixed in a release should be reflected in the CHANGELOG.md, minor ones will be in the commit history (FIXME: add git exmaple to list).
+When a fix/feature gets added to the `devel` branch it will be part of the next release, some bugfixes can be backported to previous releases and might be part of a minor point release if it is deemed necessary.
+
+Sometimes an RC can be extended by a few days if a bugfix makes a change that can have far reaching consequences, so users have enough time to find any new issues that may stem from this.
+
+.. methods::
+
+Release methods
+````````````````
+
+Ansible normally goes through a 'release candidate', issuing an RC1 for a release, if no major bugs are discovered in it after 5 business days we'll get a final release.
+Otherwise fixes will be applied and an RC2 will be provided for testing and if no bugs after 2 days, the final release will be made, iterating this last step and incrementing the candidate number as we find major bugs.
+
+
+.. freezing::
+
+Release feature freeze
+``````````````````````
+
+During the release candidate process, the focus will be on bugfixes that affect the RC, new features will be delayed while we try to produce a final version. Some bugfixes that are minor or don't affect the RC will also be postponed until after the release is finalized.
+
+.. seealso::
+
+   :doc:`developing_api`
+       Python API to Playbooks and Ad Hoc Task Execution
+   :doc:`developing_modules`
+       How to develop modules
+   :doc:`developing_plugins`
+       How to develop plugins
+   `Ansible Tower <http://ansible.com/ansible-tower>`_
+       REST API endpoint and GUI for Ansible, syncs with dynamic inventory
+   `Development Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-devel>`_
+       Mailing list for development topics
+   `irc.freenode.net <http://irc.freenode.net>`_
+       #ansible IRC chat channel