[Filed first by mistake at https://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/658]

Proposal topic

In order to facilitate timely progress on install media for Fedora-16, then the results from the nightly build "mash" of Fedora-16 Branched should get chances to be available earlier in the day, instead of always following the results from the nightly build "mash" of Rawhide.

Overview

The nightly build "mash" for Fedora-16 Branched should go first, before Rawhide, on a few days per week: say, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The typical three-hour difference in completion times can be put to good use by me and others who are trying to make and test the install DVDs. Too often that three-hour delay is not just a phase difference, but instead becomes lost opportunity for work. It's much easier to finish a daily cycle (build DVD, test DVD, report bugs, debug, fix, push changes) in 18 hours after F-16 Branched Report, in contrast to only 15 hours if Rawhide goes first.

Problem space

It's hard to achieve once-per-day turnaround on creating install DVDs for Fedora-16 Branched, and this decreases the chances of meeting the Fedora-16 milestone release dates (alpha, beta, final).

Current operational practice ("mash" Rawhide first, then Fedora-16 Branched) produces the results of the nightly build of Fedora-16 Branched several hours (three to five) after the results from Rawhide. Although in theory this is only a phase shift in a daily routine, in practice too often those hours become a lost opportunity for work. In particular, is it harder to finish the complete cycle: {wait for nightly build, create DVD, test DVD, file bug reports, debug, fix, push changes before next nightly build} once per day. Developer work hours (most are in Europe and N.America) are skewed such that those three hours tend to become unavailable for making progress on successful install media.

Solution Overview

1. Get new hardware and run in parallel. Kevin Fenzi says there is activity on this front, but there is no announced time frame.

OR

1. Run Fedora-16 Branched first (before Rawhide) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Copy the shell script that supervises the nightly build[s], interchange Rawhide and Fedora-16 Branched, modify the crontab entry to run the new script on MWF instead of the old script.

Active Ingredients

Operations: modify script. Developers and testers (consumers of nightly build results): Branched will be available sooner, and Rawhide later, on MWF.

Owners

I (jreiser) wrote it.