Branching (was Re: We should get 5.9** out soon)

[Bart Schaefer <schaefer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Apr 2, 2022 at 3:47 PM dana <dana@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> PS: There has been some discussion in the past about changing the release
> process so that instead of going directly off master we e.g. make a 5.9
> branch as the 'cycle' is winding down and release off that.

The benefit of a separate release branch is that we don't have to
coordinate a code freeze among the full group with "git push" access.
That was not much of a problem when we had only about three people in
that set, but as we've opened it to a larger number of trusted
individuals it takes more effort.

Aside from just proceeding as we have been (which is fine for 5.9), an
alternate plan would be  to have a development branch and only merge
it back to the main branch at release time.  That would avoid creating
several possibly-active branches.

On the other hand, if we want to introduce "long-term support" for
major version numbers, having a branch to which events like the 5.8 ->
5.8.1 security release could be pushed would be the way to go.