Samba 4.0 beta2 in two weeks time, roadmap to release?

[Michael Adam]

Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> Would it be too soon to attempt another beta on 19 June?
> 
> I'm hoping to capture NTDB at that point, and have most of the remaining
> config.h differences removed between waf and autoconf. 
> 
> In the meantime, if you get anything major done, please update WHATSNEW
> 
> >From there, I would like to start a march towards an RC of Samba 4.0.  
> 
> To start discussion:
> 
> Beta 2 19 June
> Beta 3  3 July
> Beta 4 17 July (possible RC1 if we are confident)
> RC1    31 July
> 
> If we are ready for Release Candidate by 17 July, then we make it an RC,
> but if we do one more beta, we should be filling (and emptying) the
> blocker bug with the reasons. 
> 
> What do folks think?

I agree to this possibly very ambitious timeframe
(which we just discussed before... :-)
We need to keep up momentum!

The idea to do betas in a two-week beat is good to achieve this.
These betas should not be considered milestones but the beat that
drives us towards the release candidate #1.

At the time of the rc1, we will see how much bugfix and
stabilization work there is to do, how many rcs are needed.

> Why now?  In order to make a release 12 months after Samba 3.6 (9 Aug
> 2011), we need to make a release soon.  Our users are keen, both of the
> file server and AD side, and we have a great product.  We should give
> our users the chance to enjoy it in a stable release.

This phrasing may lead to some misunderstandings: I don't assume that
your above sentence proposes August 09 as the final release date... :-)
I think we can not plan further than rc1 now, and you did not
propose concrete dates after rc1. This is good.
I think is a good (and ambitions) goal to aim for a final release roughly
a year (+ a couple of months) after the last major release.

I expect a timeframe of 2-3 months at minimum after the rc1 to cut
a final 4.0. So if nothing comes in between, we could have a
final around the SDC time, but I don't consider this very
realistic (although desirable ;-).

The precise date of the RC1 may also still change since, this
has to be coordinated with Karolin.

So what are the bigger things we need/want do finish for the release,
i.e. before the first release candidate?

* "NTDB" - we need to sort the tdb1 vs tdb2 things out.
  I think there is an agreed goal here and Rusty has made
  good progress. Hopefully the above timeframe is sufficient.

* There are some build system issues that need to be sorted out
  so that the file-server build on older platforms does not
  suffer too badly. (But that can actually also be done
  after the rc, if you ask me.)

* There are a couple of SMB2/3 related things that I (and I am
  sure others) would love to see in the 4.0 release:
  - basic support for durable handles (SMB2.0)
  - dynamic reauthentication (SMB2.1)
  - basic support for SMB3.0 (maybe as default max protocol)
  These things have been worked on a lot in the past, and my
  expectation is that they will land in master in the next
  couple of weeks. So the chance is quite good to get these
  features in without interrupting the schedule.

* I personally would like to see the internal dns server
  as default (or at least as a visibly announced alternative).
  I expect some folks to laugh at me or to beat me up for this,
  but the recent burst in making the dns server async has shown
  that this can still happen... ;-)

What else have I forgotten?

Cheers - Michael

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