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Improve release and development cycle documentation

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This commit:
- Adds a table highlighting the status of each version and provides
  a link to each major release's changelog
- Re-inforces how stable versions are maintained and for how long
- Moves this documentation out of the developer tree (this is
  interesting for users too!) while keeping a link there.
pull/27313/head
David Moreau-Simard 7 years ago committed by Toshio Kuratomi
parent 90a42d1e53
commit e2d874c744
4 changed files with 139 additions and 59 deletions
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docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/developing_releases.rst
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Releases
========
.. contents:: Topics
:local:
.. _support_life:
Support for older releases
``````````````````````````
Ansible supports the two most recent major, stable releases. Security- and bug-related fixes may be implemented in older versions, but this
support is not guaranteed.
If you are on a release older than the last two major, stable releases, please see our `Porting Guide <http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/porting_guide_2.0.html>`_.
.. _schedule:
Release schedule
````````````````
Ansible is on a 'flexible' 4 month release schedule. Sometimes the release cycle can be extended if there is a major change that requires more time (for example, a core rewrite).
Recently the main Ansible repo `merged <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/dev_guide/repomerge.html>`_ the separated ansible-modules-core and ansible-modules-extras repos, as such modules get released at the same time as the main Ansible repo.
The major features and bugs fixed in a release should be reflected in the `CHANGELOG.md <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/CHANGELOG.md>`_. Minor features and bug fixes will be shown in the commit history. For example, `issue #19057 <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/19057>`_ is reflected only in the commit history.
When a fix orfeature gets added to the `devel` branch it will be part of the next release. Some bugfixes can be backported to previous releases and will be part of a minor point release if such a release is deemed necessary.
Sometimes a release candidate can be extended by a few days if a bug fix 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 the release candidate after 5 business days, we'll get a final release. Otherwise, fixes will be applied and an RC2 will be provided for testing. If no bugs are discovered in RC2 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 <https://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

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developing_rebasing developing_rebasing
testing testing
repomerge repomerge
developing_releases ../release_and_maintenance
../committer_guidelines ../committer_guidelines
./style_guide/index ./style_guide/index

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YAMLSyntax YAMLSyntax
porting_guide_2.0 porting_guide_2.0
python_3_support python_3_support
release_and_maintenance

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Release and maintenance
=======================
.. contents:: Topics
:local:
.. _schedule:
Release cycle
`````````````
Ansible is developed and released on a flexible 4 months release cycle.
This cycle can be extended in order to allow for larger changes to be properly
implemented and tested before a new release is made available.
Ansible supports the two most recent major stable releases.
For more information, read about the
`development and stable version maintenance workflow`_.
If you are using a release of Ansible that is no longer supported, we strongly
encourage you to upgrade as soon as possible in order to benefit from the
latest features and security fixes.
Older unsupported versions of Ansible can contain unfixed security
vulnerabilities (*CVE*).
You can refer to the `porting guide`_ for tips on updating your Ansible
playbooks to run on newer versions.
.. _porting guide: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/porting_guide_2.0.html
Release status
``````````````
+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| Ansible release | Latest version | Status |
+=================+============================+========================================+
| devel | `2.4`_ (unreleased, trunk) | In development |
+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| 2.3 | `2.3.1`_ (2017-06-01) | Supported (bug **and** security fixes) |
+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| 2.2   | `2.2.3`_ (2017-05-09) | Supported (**only** security fixes) |
+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| 2.1 | `2.1.6`_ (2017-06-01) | Unsupported (end of life) |
+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| 2.0 | `2.0.2`_ (2016-04-19) | Unsupported (end of life) |
+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| 1.9 | `1.9.6`_ (2016-04-15) | Unsupported (end of life) |
+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| <1.9 | n/a | Unsupported (end of life) |
+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------+
.. _2.4: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/CHANGELOG.md
.. _2.3.1: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.3/CHANGELOG.md
.. _2.2.3: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.2/CHANGELOG.md
.. _2.1.6: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.1/CHANGELOG.md
.. _2.0.2: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.0/CHANGELOG.md
.. _1.9.6: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-1.9/CHANGELOG.md
.. _support_life:
.. _methods:
Development and stable version maintenance workflow
```````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Ansible community develops and maintains Ansible on GitHub_.
New modules, plugins, features and bugfixes will always be integrated in what
will become the next major version of Ansible.
This work is tracked on the ``devel`` git branch.
Ansible provides bugfixes and security improvements for the most recent major
release while the previous major release will only receive security patches.
This work is tracked on the ``stable-<version>`` git branches.
The fixes that land in supported stable branches will eventually be released
as a new version when necessary.
For more information on the changes included in each new version, you can refer
to the changelog_, available on GitHub.
Note that while there are no guarantees for providing fixes for unsupported
releases of Ansible, there can sometimes be exceptions for critical issues.
.. _GitHub: https://github.com/ansible/ansible
.. _changelog: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/CHANGELOG.md
Release candidates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before a new release or version of Ansible can be done, it will typically go
through a release candidate process.
This provides the Ansible community the opportunity to test Ansible and report
bugs or issues they might come across.
Ansible tags the first release candidate (``RC1``) which is usually scheduled
to last five business days. The final release is done if no major bugs or
issues are identified during this period.
If there are major problems with the first candidate, a second candidate will
be tagged (``RC2``) once the necessary fixes have landed.
This second candidate lasts for a shorter duration than the first.
If no problems have been reported after two business days, the final release is
done.
More release candidates can be tagged as required, so long as there are
bugs that the Ansible core maintainers consider should be fixed before the
final release.
.. _freezing:
Feature freeze
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While there is a pending release candidate, the focus of core developers and
maintainers will on fixes towards the release candidate.
Merging new features or fixes that are not related to the release candidate may
be delayed in order to allow the new release to be shipped as soon as possible.
.. seealso::
:doc:`committer_guidelines`
Guidelines for Ansible core contributors and maintainers
:doc:`test_strategies`
Testing strategies
:doc:`community`
Community information and contributing
`Ansible Changelog <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/CHANGELOG.md>`_
Documentation of the improvements for each version of Ansible
`Ansible release tarballs <https://releases.ansible.com/ansible/>`_
Ansible release tarballs
`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
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