View source for SimRel/2018-09/Simultaneous Release Plan

This document is primarily for developers of the 2018-09 [[Simultaneous Release]].

===Requirements For Participation===
Projects that are part of 2018-09 agree to abide by the [[SimRel/Simultaneous_Release_Requirements| requirements of the Eclipse Simultaneous Release]].

===Milestones and Release Candidates===
The Release is on the 19th of September. The milestone dates are at roughly 2-3-week intervals. Any end-of-cycle release candidate (RC) dates are typically one week apart.  Each project has their deliveries due at times offset from the end-date so that the project dependencies can come together in a reasonable order.  These delivery times are based on the dependencies between projects. They are labeled +0, +1, +2, and +3, with +0 coming first (the Platform) and "+4" coming last (only EPP packages). Projects themselves decide if they are +0, +1, +2, or +3. The actual time-offset represented by these intervals is mostly one day. The following calendar is the official schedule of the overall 2018-09 Release. Projects are free to have their own schedules as long as they meet the 2018-09 deliverables.

Note that projects choose their own +n category based on major or primary dependencies. There are many cases where a project might have to deliver pieces of their code a little earlier, if some project depends on it, or a little later if they have a stray dependency. These sorts of deviations are left to the projects to work out, pair-wise, among themselves. Feel free to bring up complicated cases for discussion.

Given all these constraints, the exact dates for any particular release cycle are pretty predictable. The following table summarizes the most significant 2018-09 dates but see the subsequent calendar for the important details. That is, your stuff is due earlier than these table dates! Projects need to deliver a week or two before these "end dates", depending on their chosen, committed offset category (+0, +1, etc). Also, to emphasize, the dates represent the last possible date to contribute ... projects are encourage to provide "warm-up" builds a week or two earlier, when possible, as this often helps expose issues that other teams need discussion or that other teams need to react to, before their final delivery.

After RC2 is quiet week. There will be no further builds. That time is reserved for final, in depth testing, and preparation for release. Emergency rebuilds might be considered, by following the usual [https://wiki.eclipse.org/SimRel/Simultaneous_Release_Requirements/Appendix#Planning_Council_Exception_Process Planning Council Exception Process], but only for serious, blocking regressions that have a "cross-project" impact. 

Note: A rebuild during the quiet, final week before a release implies an automatic slip of one week for the official, simultaneous release date. This applies to all projects that are part of the simultaneous release, since, to name one reason, there is always a chance we'd have to re-spin again, and slip the date a second time. All projects consuming a "re-built" bundle, might also have to rebuild or re-package their deliverables. 

====Schedule ====


{| class="wikitable"
! Release
! Date
! Span
! Notes
|-
|2018-09 M1
|Friday, July 20, 2018
|07/13 to 07/20
|3 weeks from Photon GA
|-
|2018-09 M2
|Friday, August 10, 2018
|08/03 to 08/10
|3 weeks from M1
|-
|2018-09 M3
|Friday, August 31, 2018
|08/24 to 08/31
|3 weeks from M2
|-
|2018-09 RC1
|Friday, September 7, 2018
|08/31 to 09/07
|1 week from M3
|-
|2018-09 RC2
|Friday, September 14, 2018
|09/07 to 09/14
|1 week from RC1
|-
|colspan="2"|Quiet week
|09/14 to 09/18
|No builds during "quiet week". It is assumed all code is done by the end of RC2.
|-
|2018-09 GA
|Wednesday, September 19, 2018
|
|5 days from RC2
|}


<googlecalendar width="100%" title="SimRel Release Schedule">gchs7nm4nvpm837469ddj9tjlk%40group.calendar.google.com</googlecalendar>

The calendar is available in the following formats:
[http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/gchs7nm4nvpm837469ddj9tjlk%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics ICal],[http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=gchs7nm4nvpm837469ddj9tjlk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York HTML]

===Communication Channels===

====Cross-Project Milestone & RC Status Reporting====

Only negative status needs to be reported. It is essential for many aspect of the simultaneous release that communication be prompt and clear, on many topics. One of the most important ones, is if someone is not meeting some date or delivery. Put another way, we assume everyone is on target and has delivered their stuff unless a note is sent to cross-project list that you are delayed. Its better to be up front about it, so everyone knows what to expect, rather than to hope things turn out OK at the very last minute, since if you "miss" without saying anything you are more likely to impact other people, and miss your chance to be part of the release.

====Mailing Lists and Newsgroups====

Eclipse projects have three communication channels: a mailing list for developers, a newsgroup for users, and Bugzilla. While 2018-09 is not a "project" per se, it will use the same structure:
=====Developer mailing list=====
* [https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev cross-projects-issues-dev] - mailing list for developers and releng (see  [http://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/cross-project-issues-dev/threads.html archives]). This is the list to use to discuss build issues, announce changes in plans, slippage in deliverables, etc.

=====Bugzilla=====

If there is any doubt about where a bug belongs, it can always start in the "Cross-Project" component. (Under Eclipse Foundation > Community). If it turns out to be a single project's responsibility, it can be moved to that project. If it is a true cross-project bug, where several projects need to act, then it can stay in the cross-project component.

* [https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&short_desc_type=allwordssubstr&short_desc=&classification=Eclipse+Foundation&product=Community&component=Cross-Project&long_desc_type=allwordssubstr&long_desc=&bug_file_loc_type=allwordssubstr&bug_file_loc=&status_whiteboard_type=allwordssubstr&status_whiteboard=&keywords_type=allwords&keywords=&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&emailtype1=substring&email1=&emailtype2=substring&email2=&bugidtype=include&bug_id=&votes=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=Now&chfieldvalue=&cmdtype=doit&order=Reuse+same+sort+as+last+time&field0-0-0=noop&type0-0-0=noop&value0-0-0= Search] in Eclipse Foundation > Community > Cross-Project
* Open a new [https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?assigned_to=cross-project.inbox%40eclipse.org&product=Community&component=Cross-Project Cross-Project] bug

=====The Planning Council Mailing List=====

Because there has been confusion in the past, we'll be explicit here that the  [https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/eclipse.org-planning-council planning council mailing list (eclipse.org-planning-council) ] is for Planning Council business, not the 2018-09 Release activities per se. While they sometimes overlap, there is no need to cross post. While anyone can request a subscription to the planning council list (for openness and transparency) the expectation is that only Planning Council members post to it.

=====Conference Calls=====

The [[Planning Council]]  has regularly scheduled calls for Planning Council business. See [[Planning_Council#Call_and_Meeting_Schedule|conference calls]].

But there are no planned calls for the release, per se, or for larger audiences, but they can be arranged if required or desired (for example, if needed for build coordination).

===Builds and P2 repository ===

==== Builds (Aggregation) ====

This section, about assembling the repositories, is subject to change, as improvements in the process are made.

A number of utilities have been written to automate the assembly of the different simultaneous releases. These are available in their own SCM repository. If interested in this history, you can find more information about the history and organization by looking at some of the old, previous information on the [[Helios/Contributing_to_Helios_Build | Contributing to Helios Build]], [[Galileo/Build | Galileo Build]], [[Ganymede/Build | Ganymede Build]] and [[Europa/Build | Europa Build]] pages).

With 2018-09 we are using the [[CBI/aggregator/manual|CBI Aggregator]] (effective 11/2016 we switched from "b3" aggregator to "CBI aggregator"). 

The [[Simrel/Contributing_to_Simrel_Aggregation_Build | Contributing to Simultaneous Build]] page is where you go to learn how to add your project to the Photon build (aggregation).

==== p2 Repository ====

To obtain the latest published bits from 2018-09, use this URL:

 http://download.eclipse.org/releases/2018-09

It contains the latest milestone, release candidate, eventually the release itself, and then eventually the update releases.

==== Staging repository ====

To obtain the latest working version, as we build up to a milestone or release, you can test the staging repository: 

 http://download.eclipse.org/staging/2018-09

=== Update Releases ===

After Photon.0, the simultaneous release cadence will move from a 1 year release cycle to a 13 weeks cycle. The releases will occur at the end of September, December, March and June each year. Instead of a one year long ramp-up to a release, there will be rolling releases.

See also: [https://wiki.eclipse.org/SimRel/Simultaneous_Release_Cycle_FAQ Simultaneous Release Cycle FAQ]

==== Schedules ====

More specific dates will be provided later, but they follow the same pattern as previous releases, which means the rolling releases will occur approximately during the following months: 

* September 2018
* December 2018
* March 2019
* etc.

==== Other considerations and rules ====

Individual projects may have their own update releases at any time if they need to, but all participants in the Simultaneous Release, are expected to participate fully in each release. What new features are added or what bugs are fixed is up to each project to decide, but each project must, at least, continue to "fit in"; build, install and avoid conflicts. To be explicit, new projects may join releases, and participating projects may add new features or APIs (i.e. contribute Minor Releases) if they would like to.
Another important rule is that new projects and even new features must be essentially complete, including release review records, by RC1. Anything later than that must also go through the Planning Council's formal [[SimRel/Simultaneous_Release_Requirements/Appendix#Planning_Council_Exception_Process| Exception Process]].

[[Category:SimRel-2018-09| ]] [[Category:Coordinated]]