12:01:39 #startmeeting Weekly Community meeting 4th May 2016 12:01:39 Meeting started Wed May 4 12:01:39 2016 UTC. The chair is rastar. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 12:01:39 Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic. 12:01:39 The meeting name has been set to 'weekly_community_meeting_4th_may_2016' 12:01:55 #topic Roll call 12:02:13 * jdarcy is here 12:02:30 * jiffin is here 12:02:31 * atinm raises his hands 12:02:37 * kkeithley is here 12:02:48 * anoopcs is here 12:02:48 * karthik___ is here 12:03:10 * rjoseph is here 12:03:19 * ndevos is at home 12:03:31 Let us wait for some more time 12:03:33 ndevos: :) 12:04:42 Apparently "here" overlaps with ndevos's home. Got any coffee? 12:05:06 yes, coffee is at my desk too 12:05:34 Ok, let's start 12:05:50 The link to the agenda in in the topic.. 12:06:08 #topic Last Weeks AIs 12:06:20 #topic kshlm & csim to set up faux/pseudo user email for gerrit, bugzilla, github 12:06:58 We don't have either kshlm or csim here 12:07:10 we already have bugs@gluster.org in bugzilla.... for *long* 12:07:10 I don't have any updates on this, moving on 12:07:35 * skoduri is here 12:07:41 * overclk is here.. 12:08:00 ndevos: I don't remember why this was requested, do you? 12:08:24 I don't like the idea of using bugs@gluster.org for the patch-posted-to-gerrit updates to BZs 12:08:31 seems like it could be abused 12:08:37 I think because it was slightly un-kosher to have all those changed-status updates coming from Avati or (more recently) Vijay. 12:08:41 although I'm not sure how 12:08:46 #info agenda is here : https://public.pad.fsfe.org/p/gluster-community-meetings 12:09:11 jdarcy: Thanks :) 12:09:23 if only because Avati doesn't work _here_ any more 12:09:56 oh, posts to bugzilla should not be tied to any persons account 12:10:04 exactly 12:10:07 yes, something like gluster.ant@gluster.org would be better 12:10:13 robo posts 12:10:20 bugs@gluster.org would work for me, not sure why kkeithley doesnt like it 12:10:46 if it can't be abused then I'm not opposed to bugs@gluster.org 12:11:05 anything can be abused... 12:11:25 * kkeithley rolls his eyes. 12:11:41 _easily_ abused 12:12:10 Let's move on. 12:12:15 ok 12:12:25 #topic jdarcy to provide a general Gluster-4.0 status update 12:12:30 Done. 12:12:42 jdarcy: yes, we saw the mail :) 12:12:45 and yes, thanks for that jdarcy! 12:12:49 anything to add here? 12:12:52 Nope. 12:13:12 I forgot to set AI on faux user 12:13:19 #action kshlm & csim to set up faux/pseudo user email for gerrit, bugzilla, github 12:13:27 We 12:13:33 oops 12:13:38 #topic jdarcy will get more technical and community leads to participate in the weekly meeting 12:13:54 I've nagged and whined as much as I'm going to. We can retire the item. 12:14:05 I was going to say the same 12:14:17 moving on.. 12:14:18 sorry for being late.. kids just got on the bus 12:14:23 Let me be clear: I've nagged and whined *on that topic* ... ;) 12:14:26 * post-factum joins better late than never 12:14:47 hello lpabon post-factum 12:14:55 #topic hagarth to take forward discussion on release and support strategies (onto mailing lists or another IRC meeting) 12:15:17 oh, he sent an email 12:15:19 I saw hagarth_ 's reply on the same, we need more responses on that thread 12:15:48 Especially now that we have branched 3.8 12:16:32 yeah, pranith (where is he?) had a proposal too 12:17:04 ndevos: pranith could not join today 12:17:13 I was talking about the same thread that he started 12:18:20 * rastar is not able to search for that email 12:19:07 * ndevos also can not find the mail 12:19:33 subject was "RFC for change in release model" 12:19:34 its on the maintainers list I believe and I don't know the archive link for it 12:19:49 does anyone? 12:19:51 #link http://www.gluster.org/pipermail/maintainers/2016-April/000645.html 12:20:01 ndevos: thanks! 12:20:18 ndevos, you are super fast! 12:20:22 and Vijays related one: 12:20:24 #link http://www.gluster.org/pipermail/maintainers/2016-April/000679.html 12:21:05 do we need an AI on this again? 12:21:10 welcome pranithk1 12:21:18 post-factum: thanks 12:21:37 I think the mails are sufficient 12:22:00 rastar: we need to reach a decision at one point, we probably should check next week if we have one 12:22:13 ndevos: ok 12:22:20 #action hagarth to take forward discussion on release and support strategies (onto mailing lists or another IRC meeting) 12:22:37 the next topic I am not sure if it was resolved in last meeting 12:22:47 #topic amye to check on some blog posts being distorted on blog.gluster.org, josferna's post in particular. 12:23:09 ndevos: tell me when I can talk about different release strategy. There are somethings I don't know what to do either. 12:23:32 pranithk1: now is the time.. 12:24:23 okay, the thinking is we need a way to keep stable branches stable 12:24:44 and we also don't want to make users wait for ~6-7 months for new stuff to try out 12:24:47 how do we do that? 12:25:19 So the proposal is to have a 3 month release cycle for minor release where one will be stable release the next one is for new components to be included 12:25:27 * msvbhat arrives very late to the meeting 12:25:51 this shorter one will only be there for 3 months until next stable release after which stable version takes over. 12:26:09 but there were questions like how many releases do we support at any point 12:26:13 from my understanding, 3.8 would be the stable release, 3 months later 3.9 gets released and 3.10 (or 4.0) would be the next stable release 12:26:19 won't we have to backport 2-3 releases etc 12:26:33 ndevos: yes, that is the thinking 12:26:53 so, this model is somewhat linux kernel has 12:26:53 and we'd "support" 3 stable releases, giving users a 1,5 year of bugfixes for teh stable versions 12:27:33 ndevos: 3 stable releases mean 3 backports for every patch which is a bug fix 12:27:40 ndevos: this increases backporting burden though 12:27:55 three stable releases = 3.8, 3.10, 3.12? 12:27:57 one of the difficulties with our project, is that users are very conservative in updating, they do not want to have (any) downtime of their storage services 12:28:09 kkeithley: yeah, just like we do now 12:28:20 I had a question here in the email thread 12:28:21 Or three releases, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10 12:28:27 how many releases we maintain in that case? 12:28:31 ndevos: personally me would happily update to new release immediately. we need new features 12:28:37 pranithk1: backports should *only* be about bug fixes, features are not suitable for stable backports 12:29:03 ndevos: that makes things easier, you are correct 12:29:05 post-factum: I'm sure you will find yourself in the minority :) 12:29:20 ndevos: but there are many bug fix patches 12:29:24 ndevos: what i find constantly here is users asking for support for 3.2 branch 12:29:45 ndevos: that is not what you want to happen usually 12:30:10 pranithk1: when we stick to 6 month releases, users have more options to move to newer versions, developors should encourage users to uprgade if they need new features 12:30:29 pranithk1: interval between stable releases? 6month or 1 year? 12:30:32 ndevos: but 6 months seem too high for small new features 12:30:36 post-factum: I think some version of debian still ships 3.2 :-/ 12:30:43 aravindavk: You suggest :-) 12:30:55 * hagarth_ o/ 12:31:26 one stable release per 3 months? 12:31:31 I prefer lesser delta in code, hence 3 months 12:31:43 pranithk1: support of stable version ends when next stable version released or multiple stable version can exist? 12:32:03 post-factum: that would require us to maintain many stable versions if we want to offer 1.5 year "support" for stable versions 12:32:42 ndevos: you could choose 3 LTS and support them 12:33:17 aravindavk: I am thinking ending, not multiple stable versions, but ndevos is saying 3 stable versions will be supported 12:33:34 aravindavk: I do not think users are comfortable with updating their storage once every year... (but I'm also not sure when/who/why picked the 1.5 year interval) 12:33:53 ndevos: what about having 1 stable version for 1.5 years and other releases every 3 months 12:34:31 agree with rastar 12:34:44 so, 1 LTS instead of 3? 12:34:49 post-factum: yes 12:34:55 ok, rastar++ 12:35:03 rastar++ 12:35:04 spalai: rastar's karma is now 3 12:35:13 hey, bot 12:35:16 rastar++ 12:35:16 rastar: that means anyone wanting to use a new feature, will have to keep updating until at least the next stable version gets out 12:35:16 post-factum: rastar's karma is now 4 12:35:46 ndevos: that also means users won't face major issues on major update 12:36:03 ndevos: yes, but 1.5 years of wait is not much in storage world 12:36:11 ndevos: small incremental updates bring less pain 12:36:28 post-factum: I really want that 12:36:33 post-factum: any upgrade brings a risk, maybe some features get deprecated/replaced, or whatever 12:36:50 even as a developer debugging becomes difficult when many new features come in at once 12:37:09 ndevos: for sure, but in 3 months there could be not so many critical changes unlike in 1,5 years 12:37:11 post-factum: not all our users read the documentation, if we even manage to strangle release notes from the developers 12:37:26 ndevos: not reading docs is not an excuse! 12:37:44 post-factum++ 12:37:45 rastar: post-factum's karma is now 1 12:38:08 post-factum: no, but we'll break users' installations on update, and they will complain, LOUDLY 12:38:16 3.3 = 2012-05-30, 3.4 = 2013-07-12, 3.5 = 2014-04-17, 3.6 = 2014-10-13, 3.7 = 2015-05-14, 3.8 = 2016-05-xx; 3.3->3.4: 14 mos, 3.4->3.5: 9 mos, 3.5->3.6: 6 mos, 3.6->3.7: 7 mos, 3.7->3.8: 12 mos. 12:38:38 Off hand I'd say if we really stuck to six month releases we'd be in much better shape 12:38:46 kkeithley: yeah, we really have to force doing 6 month releases 12:38:51 ndevos: if you break it once in 1.5 years but do it HARD, they will complain even LOUDLY 12:39:39 post-factum: sure, but when we do major updates that is expected, I just dont like to force users to update too often 12:39:47 ok, we are discussing two things, release period and also number of stable releases. 12:39:59 ndevos: but that fear keeps users from updating 12:40:10 if release period is set to 6 months as ndevos and kkeithley suggest, that would be 3 stable releases 12:40:41 can we have some balancing between the two to have only 1 stable release at a time? 12:40:57 post-factum: maybe, but I think their fear is currently justified, we even broke minor updates in 3.7 several times - until we do that better, I dont think we should require major updates faster 12:41:33 #chair ndevos 12:41:33 Current chairs: ndevos rastar 12:41:39 * ndevos \o/ 12:41:50 ndevos: instead of coping with fear, why not just make it less but still permanent? you won't avoid breaking things anyway 12:41:53 ndevos: would you please take over? I have asked to debug some issue 12:41:56 *been 12:42:05 rastar: oh, thats why! 12:42:23 yeah, sorry :( 12:42:34 np, ttyl! 12:43:35 "release often, release early" 12:43:38 ndevos: post-factum: kkeithley: so what do we do? How do we keep things stable yet give new stuff to people who want things 12:44:02 pranithk1: yes, I was thinking of calling your mid-term releases 12:44:10 "snapshot versions" or something 12:44:16 Release Early. Release Often 12:44:29 post-factum: kkeithley: what is often? 12:44:35 kkeithley++ 12:44:36 ira: kkeithley's karma is now 5 12:44:52 pranithk1: 2–3 months, like kernel ppl do 12:44:52 Six months is what the community voted on at some point. 12:45:01 "release early & often" is all fine, but people still think their storage is different from other applications and want it to be very stable 12:45:09 Kernel is four months. And they have a lot more "release manager" types 12:45:27 kkeithley: no, kernel is ~62 days in average 12:45:32 whatever 12:45:43 but the kernel also provides -stable releases, right? 12:46:03 ndevos: some are stable, some are stable and LTS 12:46:05 Backporting burden is a huge part of this. Some day, I hope we can get to a point where backports by the core team are very limited and "interested parties" (or consultants for same) do their own backports to older versions. 12:46:34 jdarcy: indeed, and backports should really only be for bugfixes, an not features 12:46:37 ndevos: i'd say we want LTS for storage to be stable 12:46:55 ndevos: agree! 12:47:09 we've been asked about doing an LTS by a couple people. I haven't seen it gain much traction. 12:47:36 then, instead of dealing with 1 LTS you will deal with 3 stable branches 12:47:45 consider backporting efforts for doing that 12:48:14 the oldest stable branch would get backports to at most 1.5 year old code, I think that is doable 12:48:47 but, we're taking quite a chunk of time from the meeting 12:48:54 I'd be happy to _start_ by getting regular releases every six months. Once we can achieve that, then, IMO, we can consider LTS or longer term -stable. 12:49:01 As it is now, 3.7.x is LTS. 12:49:06 de facto LTS 12:49:12 pranithk1: could you summarize the requirements and email that around? 12:49:19 How does the kernel pick its stable releases that they maintain long term? 12:49:25 ndevos: difficult to backport if conflicts(if dependent patch not backported or dependent patch is feature) 12:49:26 ndevos: In which mailing list? devel? 12:49:37 ira: one in two years, afaik 12:49:48 aravindavk: we will have many less backports if we do not backport features :) 12:49:56 post-factum: Actually, their downstreams do it for them. 12:49:58 pranithk1: yeah, -devel would be good 12:50:23 ira: lets do not consider ubuntu ppl 12:50:29 #action pranithk1 sends out a summary of release requirements, with some ideas 12:50:30 ira: lts is done by Greg 12:50:52 #topic amye to check on some blog posts being distorted on blog.gluster.org, josferna's post in particular 12:51:09 does anyone know if that was done? 12:51:10 ndevos: problem is when feature changes common code 12:51:56 aravindavk: sure, in that case it most likely is not a backport, but a bugfix only applicable for the older version 12:52:06 #action amye to check on some blog posts being distorted on blog.gluster.org, josferna's post in particular 12:52:26 #topic hagarth will start a discussion on his release-management strategy 12:52:32 hmm, isnt that the same? 12:52:50 ndevos: I highly doubt it. Too many other priorities. 12:53:04 ok 12:53:11 #action hagarth will start a discussion on his release-management strategy 12:53:17 #topic kshlm to check with reported of 3.6 leaks on backport need 12:53:26 but kshlm isnt here... 12:53:33 #action kshlm to check with reported of 3.6 leaks on backport need 12:53:45 #topic GlusterFS 3.7 12:53:53 Tracker: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=glusterfs-3.7.12 12:53:55 Bug glusterfs: could not be retrieved: InvalidBugId 12:54:23 3.7.12 should have been released around the 30th of last month... 12:54:39 the agenda mentions that there is a need for someone to do that 12:54:56 did anyone volunteer to release 3.7.12? 12:55:42 if there is nobody, I highly doubt that doing more releases is something that we can manage :-/ 12:56:04 twss ;) 12:56:12 #help 3.7.12 has not been released yet, still needs a volunteer to take this on 12:56:34 #topic GlusterFS 3.6 12:56:44 raghu isnt here... 12:56:57 tracker: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=glusterfs-3.6.10 12:56:57 Bug glusterfs: could not be retrieved: InvalidBugId 12:57:25 #help 3.6.10 can use a volunteer to help raghu with doing the release 12:57:34 #topic GlusterFS 3.5 12:57:54 there are no updates for 3.5, nobody asked for bugfixes, nobody sent patches 12:57:58 Move that we drop 3.5 from the weekly reporting. 12:58:15 we should, once 3.8 is released 12:58:24 I'll maintain 3.5 until that is done 12:58:35 ndevos, shouldn't we retire 3.5 once the first 3.8 release is out? 12:58:48 atinm: yes, that is the plan 12:59:05 ndevos, ok 12:59:26 #info GlusterFS 3.5 will be retired when the first 3.8 release is a fact 12:59:32 #topic GlusterFS 3.8 12:59:40 T-minus 27 days until 3.8 12:59:48 or sooner 13:00:03 #info GlusterFS 3.8 has been branched, see http://www.gluster.org/pipermail/gluster-devel/2016-May/049330.html 13:00:25 #info GlusterFS 3.8 Release Candidate 1 is to be expected later this week 13:01:05 still needs updates to the roadmap, MAINTAINERS file in the sources and user facing release-notes and docs updates 13:01:17 and, of course, more testing! 13:01:36 no time for questions, we're moving to the next topic 13:01:43 questions can be sent by email though :) 13:01:48 #topic Gluster 4.0 13:02:01 jdarcy's email pretty much summarizes it 13:02:17 link? 13:02:20 Nothing to add here. 13:02:42 http://www.gluster.org/pipermail/gluster-devel/2016-May/049375.html 13:02:43 http://www.gluster.org/pipermail/gluster-devel/2016-May/049367.html 13:02:54 thanks! 13:03:11 huh! Why are the links different? 13:03:19 lol 13:03:20 #topic Announcements / Reminders 13:03:27 If you're attending any event/conference please add the event and yourselves to Gluster attendance of events: https://public.pad.fsfe.org/p/gluster-events 13:03:30 atinm: Yours is to a second message further down-thread. 13:03:30 Put (even minor) interesting topics on https://public.pad.fsfe.org/p/gluster-weekly-news 13:03:33 Use the following etherpad for backport requests https://public.pad.fsfe.org/p/gluster-backport-requests 13:03:47 Ahh right 13:03:48 #topic Open Floor 13:04:00 anything that needs urgent discussion? 13:04:06 yes 13:04:16 and can be handled in under a minute? 13:04:19 nothing urgent - I put it up but can be followed over email 13:04:32 We are thinking of coming up with a 4.0 demo (a sort of show and tell hang out session) for 4.0 features 13:05:50 So question here is can we utilize one such community meeting monthly and have those sessions or it has to be scheduled separately?? 13:05:53 overclk: yeah, your topic should be done by email in any case :) 13:06:25 this is just to showcase how 4.0 is progressing and getting valuable feedback from the community 13:06:40 atinm: these meetings tend to be pretty active, I do not think it would be good to skip them on regular basis 13:07:04 so you vote for a different schedule, ndevos ? 13:07:19 and we want to see all maintainers join these meetings, lets try not to confure them too much with alternating schedules 13:07:35 atinm: yeah, I would like to see a different slot for hangouts 13:07:52 Probably for the sake of time, I'll initiate an email and seek opinion on that? 13:07:57 yes please :) 13:08:03 ndevos, ok 13:08:19 #action overclk will send an email about maintenance of teh changelog xlator 13:08:42 #action atinm will send an email about scheduling hangout sessions for 4.0 features 13:09:16 so, even with the side-tracking of release planning, we managed to keep it under 10 minutes overtime 13:09:20 #endmeeting