[webkit-gtk] WebKitGTK+ Release Policy and Schedule

[Xan Lopez]

A number of people, both from inside and outside the WebKitGTK+
community, have recently asked about our release policies and
schedules. We have explained them a number of times already, in this
list and elsewhere, but clearly we should do a better job about it
since we are failing to get the message across. In this mail I'll try
to briefly state why we do what we do and clearly indicate the
schedule we plan to follow in the future. If, after debate, there's no
strong objections we'll put a summary of this at webkitgtk.org.

The main idea is that the WebKitGTK+ release schedule is (almost)
perfectly aligned with the GNOME release schedule. We do one stable
release every 6 months, at the same time than the stable GNOME
release. There's a number of reasons for this, but the main ones are:

- We generally agree with the idea of time-based releases.

- Many of us work on upstream GNOME modules, some of them using
  WebKit, so it's natural to choose the GNOME schedule.

- On top of that, some modules that we maintain are closely tied to
  WebKit (Epiphany in particular) and developed together with it, so
  it's extremely convenient to release all these modules at the same
  time.

So this is what you can expect in terms of releases:

- One unstable, preview release, of WebKitGTK+ with each GNOME
  unstable release until the UI freeze. These will generally be in the
  form 1.X.1, 1.X.2, 1.X.3, etc. X is an odd number.

- At UI freeze (which is about one month before the release), we'll
  branch and start to stabilize the code as much as possible. The
  first release of this branch will be in the form 1.X.90, to signify
  that we are approaching the end of the cycle. This is exactly what
  GNOME does, and we'll do the same to avoid potential confusion for
  downstream.

- A stable release, of the form 1.X+1.0 at the same time than the
  GNOME stable release. Further maintenance releases will happen from
  that branch as needed, starting with 1.X+1.1. At the same time,
  we'll start a new cycle with unstable releases from trunk (which
  kept advancing since the moment we branched).

- Our stable releases are generally maintained until the next one is
  out, although exceptions could be made if distributions request
  it. We'd appreciate help on this matter though!

- Unless otherwise stated, and in exceptional situations, WebKitGTK+
  has been API and ABI stable since 1.0. When breakage has happened it
  has been very minor and usually because of circumstances beyond our
  control.

Of course all of this is subject to human failure (like everything
else!), so in the past we have sometimes failed to deliver tarballs on
time. That being said, the fact remains that this is the plan we are
trying to follow.

This is pretty much it, comments and questions are welcome.

On behalf of the WebKitGTK+ team,

Xan