Release process Julep

[simonbyrne]

• How often should we make future releases?
• What should be the timelines and requirements for alpha, beta, RC, etc.?
• When should we upgrade LLVM?

We should also fully document all the steps in making a release (e.g. https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/883c8a38920985e0c02df169ff8c379731d88fc6/Makefile#L112-L129)

[simonbyrne]

e.g. https://forge.rust-lang.org/release-process.html

[StefanKarpinski]

My proposal is roughly:

• Quarterly time-based releases with a month freeze before the release: anything that's merged by the month before is in, anything else isn't.
• Not sure we need alphas and betas for minor releases, a month of release candidates might be enough.
• Upgrade LLVM whenever LLVM is released.
• Consider the last release of the year a "long term support release" which will get ongoing bug fix updates
• All the other releases will get bug fix releases until the following minor release and not usually many beyond that.

[PallHaraldsson]

I agree e.g.

Quarterly time-based releases with a month freeze before the release

was that just a failed proposal, now yearly by design? Can we and should we at least (try) to compress the schedule, if quarterly unrealistic, then to every six months?

Consider the last release of the year a "long term support release" which will get ongoing bug fix updates

That would be every release currently, I think every 2 years or even 3, promised, more realistic. And with it the old LTS out.

As with 1.11 now, do we need a bit of overlap of support with latest version? Maybe only 1 or 2 months? Or just no promise of such?