Setting a date for the 2.31 branch

[Jeff Law]

On 06/14/2018 07:56 AM, Nick Clifton wrote:
> Hi Guys,
> 
>   The last binutils release was in January, so if we want to keep a 6
>   month cadence then then next release should be in July.  With my
>   Fedora hat on though, it would be very convenient if the next release
>   happened before July 11, as that is when the next mass rebuild will
>   happen.  Thus I am considering creating the branch a little bit early,
>   say June 23 (a Saturday) in order to give enough time for testing and
>   bug fixing.
> 
>   How would this fit in with your plans ?  A branch on the 23rd would
>   give us another week to add in any new features that we want in the
>   2.31 release.  This is not a lot of time, I know, but I do not think
>   that there are big changes currently in the pipeline.  Are there ?
So I think it's largely in your hands.  If I put my FSF hat on, I think
we're getting enough broad testing from my system that I'm confident the
trunk builds and works on a large number of native and embedded targets.

If I put my Fedora hat on, the concern is the deeper testing on the
Fedora targets.  We're not getting that deep testing of x86, ppc, s390,
aarch64, arm.  But we haven't really ever gotten that deep testing prior
to updating in Fedora.  So I don't think that should be a blocking issue.

I think it really comes down to whether or not you think you've got the
bandwidth to get a release out the door, get Fedora updated and deal
with any fallout from the upcoming mass rebuilds.

jeff