LTS Track Request for netbeans Snap

Apache NetBeans new release schedule define an LTS release which is a more tested version that the latest release and potentially receives patches.
We would like that the users have the possibility to install that version instead of the current stable release. In order to do that we would like to request an LTS track for this Snap.
Also we are not sure that this request is aligned with the common Snapcraft usage patterns, so we are open for other recommendations as well.

In general LTS releases are a good use case for tracks.

Could you describe the release cadence for NetBeans LTS? (if there’s a page already describing this just give me a link, happy to read existing material). Also, is there only one LTS release at any given time? meaning, I can choose between a stable-but-current and an LTS-older-but-receives-security-patches at any time.

How often is the LTS “rotated”? Usually, LTS tracks are versioned (to use Ubuntu as an example, one could have 16.04, 18.04 and “latest” tracks) - will NetBeans need something like this, or is a single LTS track okay?

  • Daniel

Well, the project agreed on this, this year: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Release+Schedule

We have limited resources, so our LTS strategy is a bit simple. So we plan to do an LTS version every April which goes through an extensive testing.
We provide update releases every 3 months, mainly testing the new functionality only.
We also provide occasional patches for LTS through our update center.

According to our current plans LTS releases does not overlap. We are just providing patches to our current LTS.
It seems this is what we can stand up for at the moment.

Thanks for the link!

It looks to me like LTSs are versioned - per that doc, 11.0 will be an LTS, and so will 12.0 due out next April and 13.0 in April, 2021.

From this, it seems to me that the track scheme you would want is:

latest - would contain, today, 11.1, and track the most recent scheduled release (11.2, 11.3, 12.0, 12.1, etc) 11.0 - would contain, today, 11.0 with all “Minimal serious bug fixes”.

As an example, once 12.0 is released, a 12.0 track would be created and coexist with 11.0. It’s not clear to me from the document for how long LTS releases are supported; that is, 11.0 will be supported until… when?

This is a suggestion of course, based on my interpretation of that document. The naming of the tracks is up to you - so, which one will it be? :slight_smile:

(I’m +1 to the general request of LTS tracks, we just need to nail down the names).

  • Daniel

Right now the LTS is only supported until the next LTS would be released, at least that’s the plan.
I like the idea having 11.0 and later 12.0 tracks as for LTS.

What do you think is it feasible to have a track named “lts” or “LTS” as well pointing to the latest LTS whenever it is released? For me that sounds like a good idea, but the users might find that confusing. So in this case I would go with your recommendation.

This is the usual pattern for this kind of track. If the plan is that 11.x will become unsupported once 12.0 is released, then the 11.x track can be “closed” by unreleasing all the snaps from it; people won’t be able to install 11.x anymore, and those who already have 11.x installed will not receive any updates (understandable since you won’t be publishing any anymore).

The problem with this is that when you publish 12.0 to the LTS track, people who were using 11.0 (from LTS) will be forcibly updated to 12.0, which may not be what they wanted. Tracks are about giving people the choice of staying on an older release.

If the above is OK to you, though, I’m not opposed to an “LTS” (‘lts’ would be more typical) track; just wanted to clarify the common pattern and consequence of a catch-all, non-versioned LTS track.

  • Daniel

Well then, let’s have a “11.0” track as of now to let the people install the LTS version and we are going to see how the things would work out when the 12.0 would be released. (Might run a poll before that happens among the community.)

Thank you for your wisdom!

Hello @reviewers,

We’ve passed the 7-day comment waiting period mark and we still only have 1 vote on creating the “11.0” LTS track for Netbeans. Could someone else chime in?

I’ll check back in a few (likely 4, due to long weekend) days.

  • Daniel

+1 from me.

Thank you! I see the new track on the Releases page, but I cannot make it as a track available to install.
AFAIK that shall be there with revision 6. How can I make that happen?

Apologies for the delay!

I’ve just added the 11.0 track (at Tue Sep 3 14:16:33 UTC 2019) - you can now use it to do releases.

If you are unable to do so using the web interface, you can try using "snapcraft release netbeans SOME_REVISION 11.0/stable, that should open the track and make it usable via the web interface.

Cheers,

  • Daniel

Thank you! That worked!