Xen 4.15 release schedule

[Ian Jackson <iwj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Following consultations with the community, here is the release
schedule for Xen 4.15:

 Friday 15th January    Last posting date

     Patches adding new features should be posted to the mailing list
     by this cate, although perhaps not in their final version.

 Friday 29th January    Feature freeze
  
     Patches adding new features should be committed by this date.
     Straightforward bugfixes may continue to be accepted by
     maintainers.

 Friday 12th February **tentatve**   Code freeze

     Bugfixes only, all changes to be approved by the Release Manager.

 Week of 12th March **tentative**    Release
     (probably Tuesday or Wednesday)

Any patches containing substantial refactoring are to treated as
new features, even if they intent is to fix bugs.

Freeze exceptions will not be routine, but may be granted in
exceptional cases for small changes on the basis of risk assessment.
Large series will not get exceptions.  Contributors *must not* rely on
getting, or expect, a freeze exception.

The codefreeze and release dates are very much provisional and will be
adjusted in the light of apparent code quality etc.

Chinese New Year falls around the 11th-19th of February this year.  In
my plan above, that largely falls within the hard code freeze period.
If we don't manage to get the tree to an acceptable quality level by
the tentative codefreeze and release dates above, these dates will
slip.

I have not yet started tracking "big ticket" items, and bugs.  I
expect to start doing that starting after Christmas.  NB the primary
responsibility for driving a feature's progress to meet the release
schedule, lies with the feature's proponents.

If as a feature proponent you feel your feature is at risk and there
is something the Xen Project could do to help, please consult me or
the Community Manager.  In such situations please reach out earlier
rather than later.

Ian.