[2610] in Release_Engineering
RE: projects for 7.3
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (kim@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Jun 4 08:08:09 1991
From: kim@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
To: jik@cats.UCSC.EDu
Cc: release-73@ATHENA.MIT.EDU, rel-eng@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 03 Jun 91 19:07:26 -0700.
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 91 08:07:26 EDT
I am in the process of talking with each of the project
leaders to find out whether they are submitting code, and
filling them in on dates, etc... Most of the project
leaders are on the release team or have attended the first
meeting, making them aware of the cut off date.
delete wasn't specifically listed as a project, so I missed you.
Below I've enclosed the minutes from the first meeting,
dates and projects are listed. I've been in touch with ckclark
regarding emacs.
If you know of other projects that are not on the list please
let me know.
thanks,
kim
PS: Also see the release-73 discuss meeting for more info.
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From: kcunning@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
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To: release-73@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: kcunning@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 16 May 91 19:18:47 EDT
Athena Release 7.3 Team
Summary of Initial Meeting
15 May 1991
Attending: roden, lwvanels, ezra, salemme, cc, vanharen, akagerry, mar, carla,
lavin, kim, probe, sao, webst, tytso, kcunning [recording]
1. About the Release team and its responsibilities:
A. The process by which we shall proceed:
- We will consider five forms of input (see 4 below)
- The team will meet on a regular basis (weekly, Wednesdays 2-3)
- The minutes will be sent to discuss group "release-73"
- The members of the team will be the channels through which others
can submit ideas for the release (i.e., the team will gather input
from their respective IS/Athena groups and bring them back to the
meetings, rather than have anyone submit to discuss list directly)
B. The Release Team's responsibilities:
- The team is responsible for seeing Athena Release 7.3 through to
completion, in two distinct capacities:
- Phase 1: The team shall generate a proposal of what should
be in the release, which proposal shall be submitted
to appropriate decision-making bodies (e.g., the
Academic Computing Managers Group, the IS Directors)
for approval and go-ahead
- Phase 2: The team shall monitor the progress of the approved
Release activities (e.g., the team will supervise and
"sanity-check" the Release Engioneering team and
others, and will make recommendations on last-minute
issues such as whether a piece of software is really
not ready and should be kept out of the release).
2. The Release Schedule (subject to change):
A. Summary version:
- Jun 5 -- final release proposal
- Jun 30 -- CODE CUT
- Jul 19 -- begin "friendly test"
- Aug 9 -- begin "staff test"
- Aug 23 -- release to Ops staff
- Aug 28 -- release to field completed
B. Annotated version:
- Jun 5 -- have final proposal for release tasks/contents
(e.g., software to include, who's working on what, etc.)
- Jun 30 -- CODE CUT for software submissions for the release
[note: this coincides with the end of Project Athena!]
- Jul 19 -- begin "friendly test" (voluntary testers)
- Aug 9 -- begin "staff test" (most Athena staff use 7.3 test version)
(this staff test period to last TWO weeks)
[issue: what does "Athena staff" mean in the merged context?]
- Aug 23 -- hand over release to Operations staff for release to field
- Aug 28 -- release to all public Athena sites completed
(i.e., private sites might not have picked up release yet)
- Aug 29 -- network entirely hosed (just kidding)
3. Context for Evaluating Release Suggestions (criteria and platforms)
A. Criteria for inclusion in the release:
- Peter proposed that an important criterion was that the Athena 7.3
release NOT REQUIRE A NEW BUILD; this implied that the only release
changes that should be allowed are:
- bug fixes
- REALLY important fixes
- enhancements to the environment that could be effected as
INCREMENTAL UPDATES rather than involving a re-build
(in other words, "wish list items")
- The team, especially the Release Engineering representatives, agreed
there were no categorical rules-of-thumb that could be used to assess
whether a set of changes would involve a re-build, so it would be
best to review suggested changes on a case-by-case basis
- Suggestions that do not involve the "system packs" in any way
(e.g., new versions of locker-based software that require no changes
to any "released" software) are *not* "Release Issues" and therefore
will not be reviewed by the release team
- Regarding space on the system packs for new release programs, the
team should consider that the space available depends on some team
decisions (consider, for example, suggestions 4.E.12/16/17/22 below)
- Context: The team should consider that there will *not* be another
"major" Athena release until June 1992 (because we will not want to
change the environment significantly mid-school-year)
B. Platforms upon which 7.3 is to be released:
- VAXen running BSD 4.3
- RT/PC's running AOS
- Decstation 3100's running Ultrix 4.? (specific version to be decided)
[note: release *not* for decmips 5000, 9000 machines yet]
- RIOS running AIX 3.?
- Macintosh running A/UX 2.01
4. Suggestions for Release Contents
A. Changes that enhance Security/Performance
- for example, changing programs to not setuid
B. Suggestions from continuing Athena Project groups
- The team shall pro-actively contact Project groups about whether
their group has any input for Release 7.3
- By Project groups we mean groups corresponding to topics listed
on Peter's System Architecture, plus subgroups of those topics
- The groups and contacts we could remember were:
- Kerberos SysDev
- Hesiod SysDev
- Zephyr SysDev
- Moira SysDev (mar)
- Filesystems (e.g., attach) probe
- OLC/OLH lwvanels
- EZ wdc
- Printing ezra
- NEOS brlewis
- Dash vanharen
- Tex/LaTeX ?
- Lucy brlewis
- Emacs (new version?) jik
- MUSE/Galatea webst
- Mail ?
- Login/xlogin mar
- Discuss ?SIPB?, tytso
C. Requests from individual groups (as reported by release team members)
- The team shall pro-actively collect suggestions from their
respective IS/Athena groups
- We can categorize input into three areas:
- critical fixes
- bug fixes
- wish lists
D. Requests garnered from Software_Suggestions mailing list
- Jerry is collating the suggestions and will post the summary to the
discuss list, and bring copies to the next release meeting
E. Suggestions from the Release Team (we collected these at the meeting)
This list is recorded as discussed, and so is not categorized:
1. have Dash menus run on login by default
(at least for all new users, possibly for all users by default)
2. have password checking software (cf. jis suggestion)
3. move all user home directories (or significant subunit) to AFS
4. add a hook in login for account-specific messages
(support things like "change your password" or "don't login today")
5. lots of xlogin changes (e.g., add a check-mail-then-prompt-for-login
option on initial login screen)
6. change login to look to Kerberos server for default ticket life-time
(rather than hardwire this info into xlogin program); cf above (AFS)
7. support automated begin/expire times for motd's [not release issue]
8. software to check backup status of user files (client)
9. simpler attach maintenance methods (cf. detach -host, but for AFS)
10. xdsc in more public place (perhaps on packs? or just script?)
(note that it relies on edsc)
11. version 1.6 (when done) of Discuss (including edsc) in release
12. review what's on packs, what's not
13. OLH and related programs on packs
14. Galatea 2.5 revisions incorporated (webst will check with danapple)
15. idraw on packs
16. /usr/man and /usr/doc moved off packs (AFS location)
17. some AFS directory in default $PATH, so new programs can be added
outside of standard release cycle (symlinks? relation to @sys?)
18. per-file ACLs [not a release issue -- AFS 4.0 development]
19. XOLC on packs
20. Andrew fixes (check with wdc for details)
21. make all UNIX docs available from any platform (cf. 16 above)
(e.g., manrt; or man switch to machtype program)
22. parts of system packs on AFS
23. X11r5 [if ready]
24. change tty-oriented Zephyr message to single line, no beeps
(message can probably just point to an OLH text or a man page)
25. perl on packs
26. stronger indication of forged/inauthentic ("fake") Zephyr messages
(possibly reverse-video, in-line message, different location?)
27. latest version of mwm (Motif Window Manager)
28. new switch to machtype (or new program) to indicate platform config
29. new version of RCS
30. new version of "patch" (?)
31. new version (18.57?) of GNU Emacs
ACTION ITEMS:
* all team members should solicit release suggestions from their groups
(we will review the suggestions at the next meeting)
* akagerry will collate the software suggestions and submit it to the discuss
list (we will review the suggestions at the next meeting)
* kcunning will write up the minutes [this document] and submit it to the
discuss list
* some team member(s) need to contact project leaders about their projects
[who this should be in each case was not clarified at the meeting]
* some team member(s) need to contact appropriate people about the status
of suggested inclusions (e.g., items in 4.E above)
[who this should be in each case was not clarified at the meeting]
NEXT MEETING
Wednesday, 22 May 1991, 2-3 PM, E40-382
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