Re: new release?

On Sun, Feb 6, 2022 at 8:02 PM Mike Frysinger <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On 06 Feb 2022 11:56, Daniel Herring wrote:
> > FWIW, libtool is a particularly difficult code base to release.  Long
> > history, many users, multi-platform, ...
> >
> > I would personally recommend the "slow" process unless you are confident
> > this release will "do no harm".  It was made for a reason, even if it
> > feels nobody is participating.  Relax, practice the release process,
> > spread the news and give people time to respond, build a good reputation,
> > have cover in case bugs are found later, ...
>
> no software is ever bug free.  being paralyzed by "is it ready yet" and
> never making a release as a result makes the problem worse.  infrequent
> releases tend to lead to large accumulation of changes which makes them
> even more unstable because the interactions are never tested.
>
> libtool has a testsuite.  if bugs are found, fix them, add more tests.
> iterate and move on.
> -mike

I'd agree with these statements.

What happened with autoconf is an extreme case, but is a good example of it.
Distros stuck to 2.69 for years, and when 1.70 finally came out, there
has been a big amount of breakage.

Releases are integrated by early distro adopters, who will find
problems that are not covered by the tests, and forward them here.
If you don't release your code, this wide coverage isn't here and the
machinery gets rusty.

Fred.