From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org Received: from lists.gnu.org (lists.gnu.org [209.51.188.17]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 21861C64ED8 for ; Fri, 17 Feb 2023 15:56:40 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pT35l-000603-Ab; Fri, 17 Feb 2023 10:56:09 -0500 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pT35k-0005zZ-2o for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Fri, 17 Feb 2023 10:56:08 -0500 Received: from us-smtp-delivery-124.mimecast.com ([170.10.133.124]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pT35f-0007os-5D for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Fri, 17 Feb 2023 10:56:07 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=redhat.com; s=mimecast20190719; t=1676649362; h=from:from:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date:message-id:message-id: to:to:cc:cc:mime-version:mime-version:content-type:content-type: in-reply-to:in-reply-to:references:references; bh=dqwjKzrOlwkSxLbmBRk0dxJXnvpd6NE5e+8kvqGZHa8=; b=cvAyZ/BbJtgYH2Na7kZ2v9CLY0eK236+CxxgZAW1Ou9kXrd9fL2lTagXro1xMC7eLKYCO9 kGGweLUbKgDEM6NwTa46j4Fzjyhg1O3qhZUSTr3G4tZs81VMsfk6zVV5vWVxXMV6kZyLlt b7JXahTZq6oWLQL8NgVM8Fmgv8oiFEc= Received: from mimecast-mx02.redhat.com (mimecast-mx02.redhat.com [66.187.233.88]) by relay.mimecast.com with ESMTP with STARTTLS (version=TLSv1.2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384) id us-mta-542-UgDWDWH8MlixTSiuCf7d-w-1; Fri, 17 Feb 2023 10:55:51 -0500 X-MC-Unique: UgDWDWH8MlixTSiuCf7d-w-1 Received: from smtp.corp.redhat.com (int-mx03.intmail.prod.int.rdu2.redhat.com [10.11.54.3]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mimecast-mx02.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0B9F4884343; Fri, 17 Feb 2023 15:55:51 +0000 (UTC) Received: from blackfin.pond.sub.org (unknown [10.39.192.25]) by smtp.corp.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id DC9721121314; Fri, 17 Feb 2023 15:55:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: by blackfin.pond.sub.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id B4EBB21E6A1F; Fri, 17 Feb 2023 16:55:49 +0100 (CET) From: Markus Armbruster To: Thomas Huth Cc: qemu-devel@nongnu.org, Markus Armbruster , John Snow , Peter Maydell , Daniel Berrange , Paolo Bonzini , Alex =?utf-8?Q?Benn=C3=A9e?= , Claudio Fontana Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] docs/about/build-platforms: Refine the distro support policy Message-ID: <87sff470lj.fsf@pond.sub.org> References: <20230217132631.403112-1-thuth@redhat.com> Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2023 16:55:49 +0100 In-Reply-To: <20230217132631.403112-1-thuth@redhat.com> (Thomas Huth's message of "Fri, 17 Feb 2023 14:26:31 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/28.2 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 3.1 on 10.11.54.3 Received-SPF: pass client-ip=170.10.133.124; envelope-from=armbru@redhat.com; helo=us-smtp-delivery-124.mimecast.com X-Spam_score_int: -20 X-Spam_score: -2.1 X-Spam_bar: -- X-Spam_report: (-2.1 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_EF=-0.1, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE=-0.0001, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H2=-0.001, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: qemu-devel@nongnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: qemu-devel-bounces+qemu-devel=archiver.kernel.org@nongnu.org Sender: qemu-devel-bounces+qemu-devel=archiver.kernel.org@nongnu.org Thomas Huth writes: > Our distro support policy has been written with a best-effort > estimation of what users and developers need. However, as we now > know, the support for older long-term distributions can get really > troublesome for upstream development, since it is for example close > to impossible to keep the code for all Python versions maintained, > especially if upstream projects dropped support a longer time ago > already (Python 3.6 has been EOL at the end of 2021) while it is > still the main version of some long-term distros (CentOS/RHEL 8 and > openSUSE/SLES 15). > The QEMU project only has a limited amount of people working on > the development, so we just cannot afford of supporting both, very > old and the latest versions of our dependencies without burning > the few people who are working on those topics. So we *have* to > refine our support statement instead: > > 1) Once a new major version has been released, it should be enough > to limit the support for the previous major versions to one year > instead of two. One year should be enough time to get all people > who are interested in following the development of QEMU and who would > like to use the latest and greatest version of QEMU to upgrade their > system to the next major release of their distribution. All others > are likely happy with the old version of QEMU that is provided by > their distributor anyway and thus likely won't try to compile the > latest and greatest version of QEMU on their system. > > 2) For long-term distributions that release a new version only very > seldom, we limit the support to four years after the initial release. > > Note: These changes mean that openSUSE is not considered as supported > anymore (since version 15.0 has been released in May 2018), and > RHEL/CentOS 8 will not be supported anymore in 3 months (since version > 8.0 has been released in May 2019). > > Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth > --- > docs/about/build-platforms.rst | 9 +++++---- > 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/docs/about/build-platforms.rst b/docs/about/build-platforms.rst > index 1c1e7b9e11..cdc38f16a4 100644 > --- a/docs/about/build-platforms.rst > +++ b/docs/about/build-platforms.rst > @@ -67,10 +67,11 @@ Non-supported architectures may be removed in the future following the > Linux OS, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD > ----------------------------------------- > > -The project aims to support the most recent major version at all times. Support > -for the previous major version will be dropped 2 years after the new major > -version is released or when the vendor itself drops support, whichever comes > -first. In this context, third-party efforts to extend the lifetime of a distro > +The project aims to support the most recent major version at all times for > +up to four years after its initial release. Support for the previous major > +version will be dropped one years after the new major version is released "one year" (singular) Suggest "the next major version". > +or when the vendor itself drops support, whichever comes first. > +In this context, third-party efforts to extend the lifetime of a distro > are not considered, even when they are endorsed by the vendor (eg. Debian LTS); > the same is true of repositories that contain packages backported from later > releases (e.g. Debian backports). Within each major release, only the most If we take Paolo's "[RFC PATCH] docs: build-platforms: refine requirements on Python build dependencies", then the rationale for this one becomes weaker. But I believe it's well worth serious consideration all the same. Why would we *not* want to do what Thomas proposes?