From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HRqKX-0002Q1-Pq for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:49:21 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HRqKW-0002Pn-5R for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:49:21 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HRqKV-0002Pk-Vx for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:49:20 -0500 Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com ([66.249.82.237]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1HRqJV-0006GY-83 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:48:17 -0400 Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id i30so231510wxd for ; Thu, 15 Mar 2007 06:48:14 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <45F94E97.10502@codemonkey.ws> Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:48:07 -0500 From: Anthony Liguori MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] RFC: This project needs a stable branch References: <200703151111.04453.jseward@acm.org> In-Reply-To: <200703151111.04453.jseward@acm.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org List-Id: qemu-devel.nongnu.org List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org I'm not necessarily sure I agree that a stable branch is the best thing to have (verses aiming for never introducing regressions). I do agree that a bug tracker would be terribly useful for tracking regressions. Bug trackers quickly get out of hand though unless someone spends a lot of time keeping them tidy. Any thoughts on the subject? Regards, Anthony Liguori Julian Seward wrote: > I am a great fan of QEMU, and have used it more or less continuously > for the past 2+ years. Over that time I've installed and operated > various Linux and Windows guests with varying degrees of success. > > The recently released 0.9.0 seems a big step forward in the > stability/usability department, which is excellent. But there are > still residual worries -- for example, qcow2 images corrupted for no > obvious reason -- which, whilst a boring problem, is important for > folks like me who want to run VMs 24x7 with the hope of complete > reliability. > > Pretty much all mature projects which have achieved widespread usage > have one or more stable branches along with the main development > branch (trunk). Think GCC, the kernel, KDE, ... the list is endless. > > Maintaining a stable branch is extra hassle and overhead, but it is > the standard way to operate, for reasons which are obvious: the > majority of users care more about stability, reliability and usability > than they do about the latest new features, and delivering stability > from a branch used for bleeding-edge development work is pretty much > impossible. That is not, of course, a criticism of the bleeding edge > developers, since it is they who ultimately drive the project along. > > I am writing to propose that a stable branch be made from the 0.9.0 > release point. The aim would be to maximise stability for (IMO) the > subset of functionality that has the largest potential user base: > i386-softmmu + Accelerator and x86_64-softmmu + Accelerator, but > excluding -kernel-kqemu due to limitations described in > http://qemu.org/kqemu-doc.html#SEC7. > > Subsequent releases of the branch would contain no functionality > enhancements, but just bug fixes, with the eventual aim of achieving > 'it just works' status for any x86/x86_64 guest I try to install/run. > I know that's a tall order, and that 0.9.0 may not be able to supply > that for all guests. But it is an important goal to strive for. > > My impression is that (at least as I perceive it) the lack of emphasis > on maximising stability on a stable branch, and the lack of a bug > tracker, is artificially restricting QEMU's user base, and therefore > indirectly its long term prospects. This is a shame, because QEMU is > a very remarkable and useful project, which should be used (and > usable) by everybody and anybody. > > J > > > _______________________________________________ > Qemu-devel mailing list > Qemu-devel@nongnu.org > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel > >