preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Joel Brobecker]

Hello everyone,

I just realized that we're getting closer to our tentative date
for the start of the GDB 7.4 release process.

We have wiki page to track the required & optional work to do before
we can start and then release:
    http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/GDB_7.4_Release

Is there anything we might want to be in 7.4 which isn't there yet?
If yes, how long do we estimate before it's in?

Any known problem that we should fix?

Thanks,
-- 
Joel

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Tom Tromey]

>>>>> "Joel" == Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> writes:

Joel> Is there anything we might want to be in 7.4 which isn't there yet?
Joel> If yes, how long do we estimate before it's in?

Ambiguous linespec is hopefully in its final throes.
I keep getting distracted but I hope to finish in the next week or two.

Joel> Any known problem that we should fix?

We have a backlog of unreviewed patches.  I would like us to pick a
deadline and try to review all patches submitted before that date.
Any date is fine by me, even today.

Tom

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Joel Brobecker]

> Joel> Any known problem that we should fix?
> 
> We have a backlog of unreviewed patches.  I would like us to pick a
> deadline and try to review all patches submitted before that date.
> Any date is fine by me, even today.

OK - Let's say all patches submitted Friday or earlier need to be
reviewed prior to branching?

-- 
Joel

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Stan Shebs]

On 11/9/11 7:12 AM, Joel Brobecker wrote:
>> Joel>  Any known problem that we should fix?
>>
>> We have a backlog of unreviewed patches.  I would like us to pick a
>> deadline and try to review all patches submitted before that date.
>> Any date is fine by me, even today.
> OK - Let's say all patches submitted Friday or earlier need to be
> reviewed prior to branching?
>
Sounds good.  People with neglected patches should re-ping over the next 
week or so, I actually have some cycles to do reviews but the time gets 
eaten up wading through old mail, only to find that the patch has been 
withdrawn for rework. :-)

Stan

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Tristan Gingold]

On Nov 7, 2011, at 6:54 PM, Joel Brobecker wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> I just realized that we're getting closer to our tentative date
> for the start of the GDB 7.4 release process.
> 
> We have wiki page to track the required & optional work to do before
> we can start and then release:
>    http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/GDB_7.4_Release
> 
> Is there anything we might want to be in 7.4 which isn't there yet?
> If yes, how long do we estimate before it's in?

I'd like to work on adapting the darwin port for Lion, but I am not sure this would be ready for 7.4

> 
> Any known problem that we should fix?
> 
> Thanks,
> -- 
> Joel

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Joel Brobecker]

> I'd like to work on adapting the darwin port for Lion, but I am not
> sure this would be ready for 7.4

There are still 2 weeks left before branching. You could send us
a status report at the end of next week, and we can then decide
whether to extend the deadline or not, depending on how much more
time you think you'll need. I'll put that in the "optional" category,
because I'd rather not delay the release for too long just because
of Darwin/Lion.

-- 
Joel

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Jeremy Bennett]

On Mon, 2011-11-07 at 09:54 -0800, Joel Brobecker wrote:

> I just realized that we're getting closer to our tentative date
> for the start of the GDB 7.4 release process.

> Is there anything we might want to be in 7.4 which isn't there yet?
> If yes, how long do we estimate before it's in?

You may have seen that the Adapteva Epiphany architecture has recently
been accepted into binutils and GCC. I hope we can get the GDB port into
7.4 - I'm still working on nailing a bunch of regression issues before
submitting.


Jeremy

-- 
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Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Joel Brobecker]

> You may have seen that the Adapteva Epiphany architecture has recently
> been accepted into binutils and GCC. I hope we can get the GDB port into
> 7.4 - I'm still working on nailing a bunch of regression issues before
> submitting.

Unless you are touching some of the core code (the parts that are not
target or arch specific), it's usually OK to accept a port even after
the branch was made. The little changes to configure.ac etc are usually
simple enough that we're confident that they are safe.

-- 
Joel

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Yao Qi]

On 11/08/2011 01:54 AM, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> Is there anything we might want to be in 7.4 which isn't there yet?
> If yes, how long do we estimate before it's in?

Joel,
I hope `pending tracepoint' which I am working on can be in 7.4 release.
 Patches are nearly done, and most (70%) of them were sent for review in
this patch set,

  [patch 0/8] Download tracepoint locations when tracing is running
  http://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2011-11/msg00168.html

I plan to send the rest of patches for review early next week.

-- 
Yao (齐尧)

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Joel Brobecker]

> I hope `pending tracepoint' which I am working on can be in 7.4
> release.  Patches are nearly done, and most (70%) of them were sent
> for review in this patch set,
> 
>   [patch 0/8] Download tracepoint locations when tracing is running
>   http://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2011-11/msg00168.html

For new features like this, I think you need to convince the Global
Maintainers as a group that there is a good reason for waiting.
Reasons could be:
   - It's only going to be a few more days at most
   - Some other features would not be usable without it
   - It's a killer feature
   - etc

In the meantime, I've added this item to the optional TODO list.

-- 
Joel

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Yao Qi]

On 11/10/2011 11:43 PM, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> For new features like this, I think you need to convince the Global
> Maintainers as a group that there is a good reason for waiting.

I thought we still have two weeks before branching, looks I am wrong.
Usually, how long it may take from receiving mail about "preparing the
upcomming GDB X.X release" to branching? and how long from "branching"
to release?

I don't find anything useful to describe this release process.

> In the meantime, I've added this item to the optional TODO list.

Thanks.

-- 
Yao (齐尧)

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Joel Brobecker]

> I thought we still have two weeks before branching, looks I am wrong.

No, we still have 2 weeks. What I am saying only applies if you think
you are not going to make it.

> Usually, how long it may take from receiving mail about "preparing the
> upcomming GDB X.X release" to branching? and how long from "branching"
> to release?

I try to give everyone a heads-up before we start the process. How
much before, well depends on my good will and how submerged by other
work I am... I don't have an alarm in my calendar that says "send
email to gdb-patches for XX weeks heads-up on next release branch",
but I do enter the tentative dates, and I try to send the email
when I think we're getting close.

There are several ways you can know about these dates:

  1. It's in the "schedule" page, part of the GDB website:
     http://www.sourceware.org/gdb/schedule/

  2. I make sure we discuss those dates at the end of each
     release cycle. Usually, not very many people are really
     interested in the next release date at that stage of the
     development. But the next cycle is announced.

So, although there is the heads-up that I send as a courtesy,
you should also be able to plan your work based on the dates
published several months in advance.

> I don't find anything useful to describe this release process.

What else do you want to know? I'll be happy to answer them, and
then we can discuss documentation updates wherever you feel
more documentation is needed.

Bottom line: Just make sure your patches get reviewed and approved
before the tentative branch time, and there will be no problem.
It looks like it's well under way for your patches.

-- 
Joel

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Yao Qi]

On 11/11/2011 10:34 AM, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> There are several ways you can know about these dates:
> 
>   1. It's in the "schedule" page, part of the GDB website:
>      http://www.sourceware.org/gdb/schedule/

That is what I want, thanks.

>> > I don't find anything useful to describe this release process.
> What else do you want to know? I'll be happy to answer them, and
> then we can discuss documentation updates wherever you feel
> more documentation is needed.

I am clear now, but there may be someone else asking something similar
in the future.  Questions/answers in this thread are quite
representative.  We can gather them and put them down in the wiki or
somewhere else.

Something in my mind (I am not good at wording)
"For each upcoming release, we should be more careful about the changes.
 If you propose to add a new port of gdb, unless you are touching some
of the core code (the parts that are not
target or arch specific), it's usually OK to accept a port even after
the branch was made.

For new features, you need to convince the Global Maintainers as a group
that there is a good reason for waiting.
Reasons could be:
   - It's only going to be a few more days at most
   - Some other features would not be usable without it
   - It's a killer feature
"

-- 
Yao (齐尧)

Re: preparing the upcoming GDB 7.4 release

[Stan Shebs]

On 11/10/11 7:43 AM, Joel Brobecker wrote:
>> I hope `pending tracepoint' which I am working on can be in 7.4
>> release.  Patches are nearly done, and most (70%) of them were sent
>> for review in this patch set,
>>
>>    [patch 0/8] Download tracepoint locations when tracing is running
>>    http://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2011-11/msg00168.html
> For new features like this, I think you need to convince the Global
> Maintainers as a group that there is a good reason for waiting.
> Reasons could be:
>     - It's only going to be a few more days at most
>     - Some other features would not be usable without it
>     - It's a killer feature
>

It *is* a killer feature! :-)  And I swear there is no conflict of 
interest whatsoever in me saying that. :-)

Actually it does fix a major longstanding bug in tracepoint support, 
which is that tracepoints in shared library code don't work unless the 
library has been loaded already.  Marc Khouzam has bumped into this one 
I believe, dunno if there's a bugzilla entry for it.

Stan