[META] What's a RC? was: [sldev] Roadmap: 1.19.0 Viewer

[Joshua Bell]

Tofu Linden wrote:
> Mike Monkowski wrote:
> > OK, that makes more sense.
> >
> > Now a question regarding "Fixed Internally" on the JIRA.  If I
> > understand correcly, some bug fixes get into RC2, RC3, and so forth,
> > depending on their severity and complexity, but all remaining internal
> > fixes should show up in the next RC1.  Correct?
>
> No, any remaining fixes might still be arbitrarily far from release
> depending on where their respective branches are in the QA pipeline.
Oh, yes, good point. I'm generally fixated on things after they clear 
the development sandbox branch.

There's a pretty good explanation here:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Source_branches

The diagram shows a conceptual flow (everything flows from dev branches 
into release, from whence RCs are spawned) but doesn't represent time: 
once an RC branches, other things land in release.

Basically: (almost*) all dev work happens in sandbox branches. Those 
merge into the trunk (named "release", a source of potential confusion). 
Periodically an RC is branched off the trunk. So something can be marked 
"fixed" in a sandbox branch but, as Tofu mentions, until it merges into 
the trunk it's not going to be in an RC.

* There are always exceptions. Some work is done right in the RC branch 
to fix regressions. Some work doesn't affect production code so can go 
right into the trunk. But the goal is to have nothing enter the trunk 
that hasn't passed QA.