[LLVMdev] RFC: Bug fix releases for 3.3 and beyond

[Krzysztof Parzyszek]

On 4/3/2013 3:09 PM, Tom Stellard wrote:
>
> Projects that wants to be distributed as part of a Linux or *BSD
> distribution really can't ship their own custom version of LLVM
> with their project.  They need to use the LLVM version that is provided
> by distributions, so this rules out this kind of solution.

In case of FreeBSD, the fix would more likely go into the OS source 
tree, not a dot branch of LLVM.  For projects like that there is still 
the issue of having their managers/coordinators incorporate a new dot 
release of LLVM into the project.  They will need good reasons to 
proceed with it.


> Also, I think it is in the LLVM project's best interest to encourage
> users to contribute bug fixes back to the project.  If projects are
> required to maintain their own bug fix versions of LLVM, then they have
> little incentive to contribute the fixes back.

If the problem no longer happens with ToT, then yes, they may have no 
reason to contribute a fix, but if it still happens, the fix will likely 
be needed.


I don't have any personal interest in not having dot releases.  My point 
is basically that there are a lot of complications with having this sort 
of effort going.  In practice, this can be very expensive, and if there 
are ways to manage bug fixes without resorting to dot releases, then 
those would be the preferred solutions.  Local workarounds are usually 
the best, and they can be reverted once a new LLVM release is 
incorporated into the project.

If you do this, you will need to manage expectations on both 
sides---LLVM developers/testers and the customers.  Sooner or later you 
will ask the developers to do something which was not in their original 
plan---how are you going to justify your requests?  I'm not sure how 
much resources the corporations paying for LLVM development will be 
willing to devote to this.  If you want, go ahead, just make sure you 
know ahead of time how to deal with all the issues that can come up.

-Krzysztof


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