Hi all,
For the 0.44 release, we will be establishing a stable branch maintenance team, to release 0.44.1, .2, etc. as the 0.45 development proceeds.
This is a somewhat different process than we've followed in the past, because while we've done point releases in the past to correct packaging or security flaws, or major bugs, we generally have not treated them as formally maintained branches before.
The motivation for doing this is primarily driven by the vast number of new features in this release. It's almost guaranteed that there are hidden defects that we're not likely to find until well after release. Rather than have a very lengthy hard freeze period to find these, as last time, this new process will enable active development and stabilization to be done in parallel.
In speaking with Mental and Bulia and some of the other developers, we feel it wise to establish the infrastructure and procedures that will allow us to actively backport fixes for these issues as they're found, so that users won't be forced to wait until 0.45 is released.
There is nothing particularly exotic about doing this; many other large projects have split devel/stable branches, and the techniques and best practices are well known and well established:
1. When fixing a critical bug that may need to be backported, make SURE there is a ticket in the bug tracker (create a new one if needed).
2. Create a patch for the bug fix. Do not include any changes other than the fix. Keep the patch as terse as possible (no formatting changes or other cleanup.) Attach the patch to the bug ticket.
3. Notify inkscape-devel@ about the fix, and recommend that it be considered for the Stable Branch. If defect is a potential security issue, please contact the stable maintainer privately.
4. New stable releases with a detailed listing of changes will be produced periodically. It will be recommended that all users upgrade to these releases as soon as possible.
We will also establish a Stable Branch Maintenance Team once 0.44 has been released. This team will have the responsibility to keep an eye out for fixes to critical bugs, integrate them into the stable branch, and perform the releases. Mentalguy has been the de factor stable branch maintainer for all of our past releases, and has agreed to be the team lead for the Inkscape 0.44 Stable Branch series.
If you would like to be a member of the Stable Branch Maintenance Team, please speak with Mental. I am sure he can make particularly good use of folks with packaging or QA expertise.
Of course, we can't say for certain how many stable releases there will be in the 0.44.x series, but I'm anticipating new releases could appear as frequently as every week or two. It will depend largely on how many critical bugs there are, and how many people will be available to handle them.
Bryce