Re: What is the legal basis for enforcing release policies at ASF?

Mike Kienenberger <[email protected]> Thu, 20 Aug 2015 18:33:20 -0400
Newsgroups gmane.comp.apache.commons.general,gmane.comp.apache.community.devel
Message-ID <CAM1yOjZnPMvd3YP3CZDL3TGwzgaW-36+-yYvaRPHS+1RrkNHAA__821.225302252237$1440110052$gmane$org@mail.gmail.com>
On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 6:23 PM, Gavin McDonald <[email protected]> wrote:
> So what do we do about all the rc1|rc2|rcx ,alphas, betas and Milestone
> ‘releases’ that are on our official mirrors right now?
>
> (Because they would have been voted on as a ‘’release’’ for the projects to
> put them there in the first place)

"Release" means different things in different contexts.  An ASF
release is a product that a PMC has vetted to meet ASF release
standards (builds from source, APL2 licensed) and has made available
to end-users in our download services.  This use of "release" deals
with legal and "can-be-modified" promises made to the end-user.

Various ASF projects also use "release" to mean something different --
a community-approved product that has a certain API and typically has
no known issues.  This use of "release" generally deals with technical
aspects of the project, such as stability and reliability.