Improved releases plan about architecture

[pvizeli]

I think we had no real choice if we want have a better quality of software. So normal user can run the stable branch and other can use the rc branch. For hass.io user it will ve a simple button to move around.

[emlove]

It's exactly the same pace, the names are just changed.

[dgomes]

I believe there is an eager amount of users who are not coders and are willing to test rc.

[balloob]

It's only 3 weeks when we introduce it. The RC period is still overlapping with the first week of the 2 week release cycle, thus after that it's just every 2 weeks again.

[balloob]

For the documentation: I've switched the website to use Netlify. This means now that any PR and branch will have their own builds. That means that people can already browse the docs for the RC without it being live on the main website.

[balloob]

We'll have the following tasks to achieve this:

• Contact netlify to get subdomains for rc and next branches (in progress)
• Script to automatically cherry-pick new tagged and merged PRs into the rc branch, update version number (ie 0.65.0.rc3 -> 0.65.0.rc4), publish to PyPi. Docker will automatically build this branch.
• Hass.io automatic builds off the rc branch
• Script to automatically merge dev into rc branch for code cut off for both main and docs website.

[MartinHjelmare]

So master will then have a three week release cycle, instead of two, right?

Sounds good, 👍.

[balloob]

Correct.

[pvizeli]

Can we push the rc also as pre-release to https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/releases ? That make it easier to follow up and for automatic builds.

[balloob]

Yes, we will do that.

[pvizeli]

Do we rollout this with 0.66 or 0.67 ?

[balloob]

I was thinking about 0.66. Do you have any objections for it to be that early?

[Kane610]

Who will use the rc that isn't running dev today? It sounds that you'll lower release pace and not really gain anything except take longer to reach the mass you need to get proper feedback.

[emlove]

Getting a build published to PyPI, Hass.io and Docker makes it way more accessible to test than dev.

[Kane610]

But is it worth a 50% decrease in speed? It's still a loss in feedback

[balloob]

@armills is correct. Take 0.65 as an example, 0.65.0 would have been published as 0.65.0.rc0. Then 0.65.5 would have been 0.65.0.rc5 and would have been promoted to 0.65.0 tomorrow.

[Kane610]

I understand that for the rc. Let's hope most users go that route. But for people going for stable there is a 3 week pace and if I understand it correctly bugs on stable will take 3 weeks to reach users. So is there really any benefit to separate stable?

[Kane610]

I understand it better now. Thanks

[fanthos]

@balloob
I have slowed down page loading speed after website switched to netlify. Seems CDN by netlify not working, all access to https://home-assistant.io/ pointed to server in US. https://home-assistant-docs.netlify.com/ load much faster on my ISP.
Not sure CNAME flattening from Cloudflare works correctly or not.

[balloob]

Alright, we're trying this out: https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2018/03/24/new-release-schedule/