Re: Xen 4.4 development update: Code freezing point reached

[George Dunlap <george.dunlap@eu.citrix.com>]

On 11/19/2013 02:40 PM, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 06:19:46PM +0000, George Dunlap wrote:
>> This information will be mirrored on the Xen 4.4 Roadmap wiki page:
>>   http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Roadmap/4.4
>>
>> (And I actually updated the wiki this time.)
>>
>> The code "freezing point" is today; which means that starting today
>> non-bug fixes need a freeze exception to be included.
>>
>> Remember our goal for the release:
>>   1. A bug-free release
>>   2. An awesome release
>>   3. An on-time release
>>
>> Accepting a new feature may make Xen more awesome; but it also
>> introduces a risk that it will introduce more bugs.  That bug may be
>> found before the release (threatening #3), or it may not be found
>> until after the release (threatening #1).  Each freeze exception
>> request will attempt to balance the benefits (how awesome the
>> exception is) vs the risks (will it cause the release to slip, or
>> worse, cause a bug which goes un-noticed into the final release).
>>
>> The idea is that today we will be pretty permissive, but that we will
>> become progressively more conservative until the first RC, which is
>> scheduled for 3 weeks' time (6 December).  After that, we will only
>> accept bug fixes.
>>
>> Bug fixes can be checked in without a freeze exception throughout the
>> code freeze, unless the maintianer thinks they are particularly high
>> risk.  In later RC's, we may even begin rejecting bug fixes if the
>> broken functionality is small and the risk to other functionality is
>> high.
>>
>> Features which are currently marked "experimental" or do not at the
>> moment work at all cannot be broken really; so changes to code only
>> used by those features should be able to get a freeze exception
>> easily.  (Tianocore is something which would probably fall under
>> this.)
>>
>> Features which change or add new interfaces which will need to be
>> supported in a backwards-compatible way (for instance, vNUMA) will
>> need freeze exceptions to make sure that the interface itself has
>> enough time to be considered stable.
>>
>> These are guidelines and principles to give you an idea where we're
>> coming from; if you think there's a good reason why making an
>> exception for you will help us achieve goals 1-3 above better than not
>> doing so, feel free to make your case.
>
> I am wondering in which category the tmem cleanup patches fall?
>
> They aren't bug-fixes, they could be considered a feature. They were
> posted before the deadline. I posted the GIT PULL (see
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.xen.devel/178043)
> to one of the folks who has write access to the repository (as
> documented in http://www.xenproject.org/governance.html)?

But it's still marked "experimental", right?  As long as it only touches 
tmem code, it should be OK until fairly late.

>
>
>> == Open ==
>>
>> * qemu-upstream not freeing pirq
>>   > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/xen/devel/281498
>>   status: patches posted; latest patches need testing
>
> Duan, ping?
>
>>
>> * Race in PV shutdown between tool detection and shutdown watch
>>   > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/xen/devel/282467
>>   > Nothing to do with ACPI
>>   status: Patches posted
>
> I think I am going to slurp that one for v3.13-rc1

Cool, let me know when it's in.

>
>> * xend still in tree (x)
>>   - xl list -l on a dom0-only system
>>   - xl list -l doesn't contain tty console port
>>   - xl Alternate transport support for migration*
>>   - xl PVSCSI support
>>   - xl PVUSB support
>
> Add this one please:
>    -xl needs to disallow PoD with PCI passthrough
>     (see http://xen.1045712.n5.nabble.com/PATCH-VT-d-Dis-allow-PCI-device-assignment-if-PoD-is-enabled-td2547788.html)

Done.

>
> I believe some of these were tacked by Wei - but he has
> been doing other things. And I am busy right now tackling
> bugs.
>
>> * SWIOTLB (kernel side thing)
>>    owner: Stefano
>>    status: Pull request sent.
>
> In v3.13.

Sweet!

>
>> * Disk: indirect descriptors
>>     owner: roger@citrix
>>     status: Linux side in 3.11, Xen-side patch posted
>
> I think you can drop this from your list.

I've moved it to the "completed" section.

Thanks!
  -George