[Automated-testing] [Openembedded-architecture] Yocto Project LTS Proposal/Discussion

[Adrian Bunk]

On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 03:12:07PM +0300, Petr Nechaev wrote:
> Hello,
> 
>  I am sorry if this is off-topic, I can only speak as a user of yocto.
> But what is the goal of doing half-year releases along with LTS ones
> if we have limited and possibly declining amount of resources ?
>  How many users do really need half-year releases and fast package
> updates --vs-- how many do need LTS and stable ABI? (any data on
> this?)

Ubuntu has both, Debian only releases every 2 years.

Debian has backports infrastructure to make it easy for users to get 
non-ancient software when they need it - which is pretty common.

>      What is the shortest time-to-release for a yocto-based project,
> do they expect 'all' packages to be 'latest' or just a few to be
> 'recent' that they can upgrade themselves?

2 years between releases means new features cannot be delivered to users 
during this time.

This is not limited to package upgrades.

>...
> 2. Support every release for 5 years:
>    - 3 years of full support and updates
>         New kernel (recipe) versions are introduced as new optional
> (DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1") recipe files. We test both.  If one wants
> - they can upgrade..

Who exactly is "We"?

>         Basic ABI like libc or python are never changed.
>         Individual ABIs (say, gui framework upgrades) are up to the
> system designer

"release" means no upgrades.

>    - 2 years of critical bugfix, community only
> 
> I imagine the overall amount of testing efforts to be less than we have now.

Overall amount of testing effort or overall amount of work?

If you want to promise 5 years of support, the worst part of the work 
will be at the end - providing security support for 5 year old software.
You need that part resourced before you can make a 5 year announcement.

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed