[RFC] Starting an LLVM update rotation

[silvasean]

For months, we have been lucky to have @ashay taking care of the LLVM update, but we need to start sharing the load here as a community. In this issue, I want to propose our new strategy for the LLVM update.

Ashay has clearly documented the process here, and has said that he will still tag the weekly greencommit in #1178. I propose the following process:

1. Each Monday, Ashay will tag the green commits for the week. (? Ashay, can you confirm that this happens on monday / what are the expectations?)
2. We have a rotation of community members that alternate each week and follow the steps here to update the LLVM and MHLO submodules.

TBD how to manage the rotation (I couldn't find a tool that "just works" in OSS) and who is on the rotation.

[silvasean]

@powderluv @tanyokwok can you list some github usernames of folks from your teams that would be on the rotation? From my side, we have me (@silvasean) and @ramiro050 who could be on the rotation.

[silvasean]

Also CC @ZihengJiang @sjarus @eric-k256

[silvasean]

@ashay -- how much time have you been spending on the LLVM update each week in practice? (just to get a feel for the amount of work to expect for folks on the rotation)

[tanyokwok]

@silvasean You can add me @tanyokwok and @qiuxiafei to the list first.

[ashay]

Thanks folks for agreeing to take this on!

Each Monday, Ashay will tag the green commits for the week. (? Ashay, can you confirm that this happens on monday / what are the expectations?)

Yes, I will post the LLVM green commit for the week around 6am Pacific Time each Monday. I will also post the MHLO green commit, but since I need to first update MHLO to the LLVM green commit, it might take an hour or so before the MHLO green commit appears in the same message.

how much time have you been spending on the LLVM update each week in practice?

This varies widely, between about a couple of hours (with most of the time spent watching the build) to two days at the highest end (trying to track down subtle bugs/changes in upstream code that cause test failures in Torch-MLIR).

[silvasean]

Great! @ashay, I couldn't find a good tool on github to manage rotations like this -- do you know of any?

If not, as a low-tech solution, could you maybe manually keep the list of people on the rotation and tag the appropriate person for the week? (so far that list would be @silvasean @ramiro050 @tanyokwok @qiuxiafei, but let's see if others join in)

[ashay]

manually keep the list of people on the rotation and tag the appropriate person for the week

That's what I was thinking of as well. Sounds good, I'll at-mention folks in the list in order each week. Thanks y'all!

[powderluv]

We will have @Shukla-Gaurav and @vivekkhandelwal1 from our side for rotation. They can tag someone in our team to join the effort based on how involved it gets.

[stellaraccident]

I can't commit to doing it regularly but am open to fill in if anyone needs to cancel or handoff. Maybe have a list of backups?

[eric-k256]

We can take a week. Put me on the list, I may bring in someone on the team to help.
It would be really nice to have the list visible with presumed dates so I can make a note on my calendar. I'd hate to be on vacation the day I'm tagged and have it delayed/missing.

[ashay]

In my team, we have a Wiki page with names of folks listed against the week when they're on rotation. Making such a list would also allow folks to swap weeks if they have other things going on. Torch-MLIR doesn't have a Wiki (does it?) so the closest alternative could be something under docs/, if that seems alright.

EDIT: My bad, we do have a Wiki. I'll add a page there and post a link here.

[ashay]

Here's the list: https://github.com/llvm/torch-mlir/wiki/Weekly-LLVM-Update. Feel free to edit as you see fit. I'll be sure to cc the listed person when I post the LLVM green commit. Thanks all!

[silvasean]

Here's the list: https://github.com/llvm/torch-mlir/wiki/Weekly-LLVM-Update. Feel free to edit as you see fit. I'll be sure to cc the listed person when I post the LLVM green commit. Thanks all!

This is great! Can you also include the github username for clarity?

[ashay]

Can you also include the github username for clarity?

Done.