Re: [orbit-dev] A (small) change to our retention policy ...

[DJ Houghton <DJ_Houghton@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for putting this together, David.

I think we should also explicitly have instructions on the wiki page for the map, ip log, and psf files. (the map file is mentioned in passing on the page but we should call it out I think) Do you think that the old entries should remain in the ip_log and psf files? (my vote is to remove them from the map file and leave them in the other 2 files)

Also, is there anything in the builder that needs to be changed? Specifically I'm thinking about the "ignore processing pre-built JARs" and also the file that we created for the test suite layout exceptions. (I think that file might be ok with old entries)


David M Williams ---01/12/2011 03:47:11 PM---Committers, We document our project's retention policy in

From:	David M Williams <david_williams@xxxxxxxxxx>
To:	Orbit Developer discussion <orbit-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date:	01/12/2011 03:47 PM
Subject:	[orbit-dev] A (small) change to our retention policy ...
Sent by:	orbit-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx

---

Committers, 

We document our project's retention policy in 
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Promotion%2C_Release%2C_and_Retention_Policies 

But, I'd like to change part of it ... it has to do with the part about re-building old stuff. We would still retain forever anything ever delivered ... this just has to do with re-delivering old versions that are no longer used in active builds or releases under development. 

The new policy is at 

http://wiki.eclipse.org/Orbit/Promotion%2C_Release%2C_and_Retention_Policies#Bundle_Retention_in_active_builds 

To see how this "diffs" with previous policy, see 

http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php?title=Orbit%2FPromotion%2C_Release%2C_and_Retention_Policies&diff=234721&oldid=232803 

If any committers feel this is a bad policy, please say so and we can discuss on this mailing list. 

If anyone sees any small improvements in wording/spelling, etc., feel free to update the wiki directly. 

There is a couple of reasons I'd like to make this change now: 

1. We need to practice and promote efficient computing and use of our resources ... and our builds are getting overly long, and our build-repositories too large. 
I'm not sure there will be any huge reduction in time or size ... but the old policy seemed way too conservative, leading to even longer builds and larger repos  ... I know first had of some very old, no longer used bundles and it makes no sense to build them over and over and over again for years, simply because there is not a fourth version coming along. 

2. We will be promoting more use of p2 repos and archived p2 repositories ... and the smaller we can make those, the better .... efficient computing multiplies its returns :) 
Our current repo (zipped up) is nearly 200 Meg. I'm not sure how much smaller the new policy will make it ... but ... 200 Meg seems too large to use on a practical day-to-day basis. 
So, I don't want it to get even larger, under the old policy. 

3. The old policy seemed to be worded in a legalistic way that was intended to provide some absolute rules about  (not) removing things ... but as I looked at some old things of mine to remove, I realized this old policy did not leave any room for "committers judgement" ... and it should. 

So ... it would be wrong to remove things willy nilly from active builds ... simply because "you" were no longer using it ... but, it is also wrong to build something over and over and over again for years, when we know no one is using it. (And, in many cases, even if someone did still need it, it is still there in an old repo ... no need to rebuild it over and over). 

Let me know if questions or objections. 

Let's set an aggressive "close" date of one week ... 1/19/2011. If no objections by then, we will consider the new policy official, and then we'll have some time to remove some of the more obvious old things before M5. 

Thanks all, 


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