Re: [qemu-web v2 PATCH] Update the information about the required version of macOS

["Daniel P. Berrangé" <berrange@redhat.com>]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 10:36:23AM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
> On 13/09/2021 10.28, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 10:04:25AM +0200, Thomas Huth wrote:
> > > On 13/09/2021 09.35, Howard Spoelstra wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > On Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 8:21 AM Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com
> > > > <mailto:thuth@redhat.com>> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > >      The versions that we specify for macOS are way too old already. Let's
> > > >      rephrase this without specific version numbers, pointing the users
> > > >      to the latest version instead.
> > > > 
> > > >      Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com <mailto:thuth@redhat.com>>
> > > >      ---
> > > >        v2: Rephrased to be more in sync with docs/about/build-platforms.rst
> > > > 
> > > >        _download/macos.md | 6 ++++--
> > > >        1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> > > > 
> > > >      diff --git a/_download/macos.md b/_download/macos.md
> > > >      index 06aa811..c55438a 100644
> > > >      --- a/_download/macos.md
> > > >      +++ b/_download/macos.md
> > > >      @@ -6,5 +6,7 @@ QEMU can be installed from <strong>MacPorts</strong>:
> > > > 
> > > >        <pre>sudo port install qemu</pre>
> > > > 
> > > >      -QEMU requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later, but it is recommended
> > > >      -to use Mac OS X 10.7 or later.
> > > >      +QEMU requires the the most recent macOS version that is currently
> > > >      available.
> > > >      +Support for the previous version will be dropped two years after the
> > > >      current
> > > >      +version has been released or when Apple drops support for it, whatever
> > > >      comes
> > > >      +first.
> > > >      --     2.27.0
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > Nice to see this clarified.
> > > > I guess a small typo crept in: "QEMU requires the the most recent macOS
> > > > version that is currently available."
> > > 
> > > Thanks, I'll drop one of the "the"s.
> > > 
> > > > Also, is this statement correct when the 2 year previous version(s) are
> > > > also supported?
> > > 
> > > https://qemu-project.gitlab.io/qemu/about/build-platforms.html only talks
> > > about "the previous major version" ... so that's a good question, what
> > > happens if a vendor releases multiple major versions within two years?
> > > 
> > > I guess the intention was that all previous versions are supported as long
> > > as the two years haven't expired yet. We might need to update the
> > > build-platforms text in that respect, too.
> > 
> > The intention was that we limit the scope of our support to at most
> > 2 concurrent releases, even if the vendor has more still under support.
> > The current major version at all times, and the previous major version
> > for upto 2 years (unless vendor EOLs it before then).
> 
> Ok, then we should maybe talk about "the *last* previous major version" instead?

Sure, that would make it more explicit.

> Also it seems like we have a similar situation with NetBSD:
> 
>  https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/614
> 
> Version 9.0 has been released in 2020, i.e. it's not older than two years
> yet. Current version is 9.2 already, though, so there has been a previous
> major version (9.1) in between, right?

Looking more closely, 9.x are all minor versions rather than major version.
8.x is the prev major version. So we dropped the ball wrt NetBSD but I don't
feel all that bad given the expected number of users/contributors from that
platform. We'll just need to remember this in future.

Regards,
Daniel
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