Preparing for Dashing sync and patch release: 2020-03-17

Packaging and Release Management Dashing
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It’s time for another Dashing sync and looking at the board I think we’re ready for a patch release as well.

There are a good number of new packages from the community ready for sync:

If you find a regression when testing, please report it upstream and leave a comment here so we can track it leading up to the sync.

Please get your releases in for this sync as early as you can, and on 2019-03-10 we’ll hold all rosdistro PRs unless they fix reported regressions.

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I’ve decided to push the rosdistro freeze and patch release date out to Tuesday 2020-03-17. There are still a few backports pending in the ROS 2 base that I want to give some time in the testing repository before the sync.

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The initial CI for the patch release revealed a build failure in osrf_testing_tools_cpp on Windows. We’re working to resolve that with https://github.com/osrf/osrf_testing_tools_cpp/pull/43 once that’s merged and released I’ll update Dashing and re-trigger the total CI. I expect the patch release will come tomorrow rather than today.

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The release of osrf_testing_tools_cpp went through last night and we’re waiting for armhf builds to finish before the sync as well as for final CI to come back for the binary archives. For those following along at home and thinking CI looks a little dire. There are a few general compounding issues affecting the “green” status of Dashing.

  • Linter-only changes are not backported. To reduce churn, we don’t backport linter changes exclusively. We may update a package to fix linter warnings when backporting other fixes to allow CI to go green for that backport. However, we are constantly updating the linter versions on ci.ros2.org so there is usually drift between green circa a distribution’s initial release and the current state of CI.
  • Recent updates to ci.ros2.org exposed issues in test output generated by ament_lint and ament_cmake causing job “failure” during the test analysis phase. The test-result output in the job log is the source of truth for these builds.
    These changes have yet to be backported into Dashing and Eloquent. They were late enough that I didn’t want to delay this release cycle for them but I will backport them for the next Dashing and Eloquent patch releases.
  • macOS Mojave is not a supported platform. There are a growing number of test failures on macOS. I like to keep building on macOS because I want to know when the build actually begins to fail but Sierra was the supported macOS platform for Dashing and when support for Sierra ended we stopped producing macOS binaries. If a community member wishes to backport fixes for test failures on Mojave I will do my best to help find reviewers.
  • Cyclone DDS failures do not block releases. Cyclone DDS was not part of Dashing’s initial release and is not a tier 1 or 2 supported middleware for the Dashing release so test failures related to Cyclone may occur without blocking the release process. I believe there are plans to update the version of Cyclone DDS used in Dashing so stay tuned for future syncs and patch releases.
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The release is out!

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Hey, @nuclearsandwich! Thanks for getting that release out! Any word on the next package sync? Specifically a few groups are waiting on the new release of cyclonedds and related packages.

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First off, I have to genuinely thank you for keeping me honest. Your inquiries are valid and are patiently timed. I wish I didn’t need the push to give a public update but I’m glad you’re giving me one. A sync is due, overdue, at this point and my schedule is currently full of Foxy work.

While a sync without a patch release is usually pretty straightforward I am caught up in a few prerequisites related to the cyclonedds updates.
The ball is entirely in my court there. I’ll do my best to get that handled this week so that next week we can do the sync.

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Please, if you need any assistance, let me know. I’d be happy to do some bug squashing to help get the sync rolling.

I appreciate your honesty and totally understand your situation. Let me know if there is anything I can help do (including and up to helping maintain Dashing).

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Hey again, @nuclearsandwich! Friendly ping and offering any help I can provide, especially related to the cyclonedds stuff.

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@nuclearsandwich Anything here? Again, definitely willing to help. Please respond as we’re going on 2 months without a sync. There’s a large number of developers on the Autoware project that are waiting for this. I don’t mean to put any additional pressure on you as I know you’re already overloaded with Foxy stuff but if you aren’t able to do the sync, maybe see if offloading it is possible?

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Just FYI, @nuclearsandwich is on vacation this week. I’ll see what I can do about getting a sync out (though no promises).

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Thanks, @clalancette! We appreciate it.

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All right, I’ve gone ahead and done a package sync here: New Packages for Dashing Diademata 2020-05-29 . No corresponding patch release, but I think this should unblock most of what people were waiting on.

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Thank you, @clalancette! You’re my hero! :star_struck:

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@nuclearsandwich / @clalancette We are going on another month without a sync. Any word?

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Dashing isn’t currently building on our Windows CI and I would really like to fix that and get another patch release out. I’m going to be spending time on that this week with a goal for a sync and patch release next week.

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Thanks, Steven! Let me know if I can help.