Status

• 30 August 2016 - The release is complete
• 24 August 2016 - The release is approved by vote
• 17 August 2016 - RC is available at tag 1.35.0-rc
• 10 August 2016 - Beta is available at tag 1.35.0-beta
• 13 July 2016 - Alpha is available at commit 4c57d9f3

Issues

• Features and improvements
• Open bugs
• Fixed bugs

Distributions

• Alpha
• Beta
• RC
• GA

Links

• Release JIRA
• Alpha thread
• Beta thread
• RC thread
• Vote thread
• Vote result thread
• Announcement

Change approval process

Changes to the release branch require approval. The approval has two parts:

• Review by a developer other than the original contributor
• Approval by the release manager

To request a change after beta, post your request to the mailing list. Put "RFI" (request for inclusion) and the requested release in the subject. Make sure the change has a JIRA, so the reviewer and release manager can record their approvals, rejections, or other comments there. Any changes requested should be consistent with the acceptance criteria listed below.

In general, a change for the release branch should be important (if it's not important, we'll get it in the next release) and safe (not liable to cause disruption or instability).

Change acceptance criteria

• Trunk open to Alpha: Developers work at their own discretion
• Alpha to Beta: Major features, improvements, or refactorings need discussion before they can go in; bug fixes are unencumbered

• Beta to RC: Bug fixes only; exceptions are sometimes made for improvements that are important, isolated, and small in terms of code delta
  

• After RC: Bug fixes for important defects only, such as build failures, regressions, or security vulnerabilities

Schedule

Alpha - 13 July 2016

• Major feature integration ends; with approval, certain less disruptive features can be committed
• Trunk remains open for bug fixing
• The alpha release tests the release process after the introduction of major features

Beta - 10 August 2016 27 July 2016, 2 weeks later

• The release branch is created
• Release branch commits require approval
• Release manager produces outstanding bug report
• Trunk opens for development toward the next release
• Preliminary release notes and documentation are available for review

RC - 17 August 2016, 1 week later

Additional alphas, betas, or RCs may be inserted as needed.