642056 - Project branch for <video>

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Release Engineering :: General, defect)

Description

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

The <video> team would like a project branch for future work. This would be a long running branch, so we can land stuff while mozilla-central is locked down for betas post FF4.

We want the branch to have the same tests/talos/etc as mozilla-central, so that landing on the branch runs the same set of stuff as landing on mozilla-central.

Answering the questions from bug 635930 comment 8...

Project name: video

For builds:
All platforms; everything that mozilla-central has please.
mozilla-central mozconfigs.
Nightly builds please.

Need unittests?
Yes. Everything that mozilla-central has please.

Mobile Builds?
Yes. Everything that mozilla-central has please.

Need Talos?
Yes. Everything that mozilla-central has please.

Name of the contact person:
me: Chris Pearce.

Timeline:
Long lived branch.

Comment 1

[John O'Duinn [:joduinn] (please use "needinfo?" flag)]

Unclear from comment#0, so have to ask. "This would be a long running branch, so we can land stuff while mozilla-central is locked down for betas post FF4." If this new project branch is only needed for the duration of any future beta lockdowns, these will be happening less frequently in the new faster-cadence-release-world. Further, I'd expect that any of the unused birch/cedar/maple branches have the same functionality and machines as mozilla-central, so should do just fine for those periods. 

If this dedicated project branch is needed, 

1) the repo will be projects/video.

3) Timeline unspecified: when do you first need this branch live by?

Comment 2

[Chris Pearce [:cpearce (Not reading bugmail)]]

(In reply to comment #1)
> If this new project branch is only needed for the duration of any future beta
> lockdowns, these will be happening less frequently in the new
> faster-cadence-release-world.

Aren't we going to have more lock downs? No one who knows the plan is talking, but the impression I got from the war council at the summit was the likely approach would be to have 1 month in which anything can land, then 1 month of baking/fixes, and then 1 month of backing out unstable stuff and testing before shipping? If so then the tree isn't really open for arbitrary landings for 2 out of every 3 months. In which case it would be really handy to have somewhere we can land our reviewed patches so our changesets don't conflict with each other, and so we can build on each others' work without affecting the stabilization of m-c.

We also have some long running projects which we definitely want to keep of m-c which may require collaboration, and having a central repository facilitates that.


> 3) Timeline unspecified: when do you first need this branch live by?

It's not super urgent. Say a week or so?

Comment 3

[John O'Duinn [:joduinn] (please use "needinfo?" flag)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > 3) Timeline unspecified: when do you first need this branch live by?
> 
> It's not super urgent. Say a week or so?

cpearce: found in triage! Sorry for the delay :-( Give me a few days to find who has time to tackle this, and we'll get this moving.

Comment 4

[Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] use ?needinfo]

I'm blocking this on bug 661525 same as the currently open request for the new fx-team branch. 

Ooc, what has the <video> team been using in the time since this bug was filed?  Have the rapid release cycles freed up the beta lockdowns that were an issue when this was first requested?  Would one of the disposable branches (cedar/birch/etc...) be usable for this team?  We have 6 of them and as of right now https://wiki.mozilla.org/DisposableProjectBranches shows two as being available. They can be loaned out for an indefinite amount of time but I'd really like to know if "Long lived branch." is the same a "forever branch" because spinning up a named branch is really more for the latter and there have been a lot of branch requests lately.  

So if the team is currently doing their work with the combination of try/m-c and let's not forget the new mozilla-inbound perhaps a disposable branch would suffice for intensive feature work and the other existing infrastructure would be enough here. Also note that project branches do not have the "same as mozilla-central" and setting something up that way would stretch our already rocky Tegra poll even thinner. Being able to do work using a branches (like mozilla-inbound or try) that already have this enabled is best for getting those tests right now.

Comment 5

[Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] use ?needinfo]

Still waiting for answers to the questions in comment 4 if circumstances have changed and this branch is no longer required please feel free to close as WONTFIX.

Comment 6

[Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] use ?needinfo]

Since there hasn't been any more feedback, I'm resolving this bug.