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doc: charter the Release working group #223

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39 changes: 39 additions & 0 deletions CONTRIBUTING.md
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<a id="developers-certificate-of-origin"></a>
## Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

* (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
have the right to submit it under the open source license
indicated in the file; or

* (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
license and I have the right under that license to submit that
work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
in the file; or

* (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
it.

* (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
this project or the open source license(s) involved.


### Moderation Policy

The [Node.js Moderation Policy] applies to this WG.

### Code of Conduct

The [Node.js Code of Conduct][] applies to this WG.

[Node.js Code of Conduct]: https://github.com/nodejs/TSC/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
[Node.js Moderation Policy]: https://github.com/nodejs/TSC/blob/master/Moderation-Policy.md

127 changes: 127 additions & 0 deletions GOVERNANCE.md
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# Release Working Group

The Node.js Release Working Group (WG) maintains oversight
over the Node.js Release, Long Term Support (LTS) and
Canary in the Gold Mine (CitGM) teams. It manages the release
and long term support schedule and policies for all Node.js releases.

The WG has final authority over Releases including:

* Release process and tools.
* Content for all releases.

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Just to clarify, does this mean that even if the CTC were to vote on landing something in a release, this WG could override that?

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I believe that using the standard delegation of responsibility from the CTC to the WG that is correct. As a final measure the CTC could dissolve the WG in order to take back responsibility if the WG is not acting in accordance with the CTC's vision.

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Yep, generally we've always operated on the model that the person actually doing the release has the final say about what is included in the release. The CTC may decide to include something, but if the releaser finds an issue that would block the release, they should have the freedom to omit it until the issue is resolved.

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This puts the Release Working Group above the CTC. If it is the Release WG that can decide what composes a release, they can decide (autonomously) to pull a semver-major commit they do not agree with from a semver-major release. In similar fashion, they can decide to put something in that is not present in nodejs/node.

All of this is very hypothetical, but hypothetical things happened before so I would like to avoid conflicts before they happen.

I do agree that the current model is the right model and they should be able to omit things, but this sentence is too broad.

How about:

Content for all releases, according to the contributions in nodejs/node and semver levels.

I hope it clarifies what I mean.

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@mcollina that is the explicit intention, and true of all WGs (as I understand it). See @mhdawson 's comment at #223 (comment). The CTC delegates to the Release WG on the matter of what goes in releases. If its unhappy about what the WG does, it has power to dissolve the WG. If CTC members have strong feelings about what the Release WG should do... they should join the WG. In your example, if a commit is pulled because the WG doesn't agree with its content (as opposed to it not passing CI, not backporting clean, or some other reason involving the release process), the WG would be overstepping its bounds, and I assume the CTC would dissolve it.

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Agreed on dissolving. However if we consider other WGs, this WG will have the responsibility to what is Node in the hand of our users, this is very different to most of the other WGs.

... the WG would be overstepping its bounds ...

Yes, exactly. I'm just pointing it out that those bounds are not written here. It might not be on this point, but a generic mention to them would be welcomed, maybe at the top.

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Again, my understanding (but I can be wrong on this) is that it is the same as most WGs. Streams has final authority about what goes into readable_stream, for example. You've never done anything objectionable, so there has never been conflict, and no one expects there to be, but its the streams WG who decides on what happens with streams. Maybe the WG charters need to change to saying that anything they decide can be overruled by a vote of CTC without dissolving the WG?

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I think that is already part of how things are set up if there is a conflict, now that I think about it. Good to know, thanks.

I am extra careful here, because this is the most critical activity of the Node.js process.

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Agreed with the caution.

* Schedule for all releases.
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As an example, a lot of people contributed to the discussion to delay Node 8 for a month. Would have it been the sole Release WG responsibility to decide so?

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Perhaps changing the wording here to * Schedule for all releases (subject to CTC approval)

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I think we should delegate it to the Release WG completely or not at all. "subject to CTC approval" creates more questions than it answers.

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(Also: I read this as delegating it entirely to the Release WG and I am 👍 on that. If people want to have input on release schedules, then the Release WG is the place to be.)

* Contribution policy for the Release repository.
* Conduct guidelines for the Working group.
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isn't CoC common across all WGs?

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It is up to the WG to either adopt the standard or define their own.

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I would include in this list:

* Administration of Long Term Support policy for all releases

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+1 to @jasnell's comment

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added

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Not sure this is worth it? Seems to be easier to have conduct just CTC guided?

* Administration of Long Term Support policy for all releases.

For the current list of WG members, see the project README.md.

## Collaborators

The Release GitHub repository is maintained by the WG (all WG
members are Collaborators for the Release repository) and additional
Collaborators who are added by the WG on an ongoing basis.

Individuals making significant and valuable contributions are made
Collaborators and given commit-access to the Release repository.
These individuals are identified by the WG and their addition
as Collaborators is discussed during the WG meeting.

**Note**: If you make a significant contribution and are not considered for
commit access, log an issue or contact a WG member directly and it will
be brought up in the next WG meeting.

Modifications of the contents of the Release repository are made
on a collaborative basis. Anybody with a GitHub account may propose a
modification via pull request and it will be considered by the project
Collaborators. All pull requests must be reviewed and accepted by a
Collaborator with sufficient expertise who is able to take full responsibility
for the change. In the case of pull requests proposed by an existing
Collaborator, an additional Collaborator is required for sign-off. Consensus
should be sought if additional Collaborators participate and there is
disagreement around a particular modification. See Consensus Seeking
Process below for further detail on the consensus model used for governance.

Collaborators may opt to elevate significant or controversial modifications,
or modifications that have not found consensus to the WG for discussion by
assigning the WG-agenda tag to a pull request or issue. The WG should serve
as the final arbiter where required.

## WG Membership

WG seats are not time-limited. There is no fixed size of the WG.

There is no specific set of requirements or qualifications
for WG membership beyond these rules.

The WG may add additional members to the WG by consensus(defined
as no objections, more than 50% of the members participating in the
discussion, and all those participating in the discussion agreeing).

A WG member may be removed from the WG by voluntary resignation,
or by unanimous consensus of all other WG members. If a member is
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Drop "unanimous". If you really want, you can define "consensus" somewhere as "no participants object" or "no participants disagree".

removed from the WG then they are also removed from all WG teams
(including the Releasers team).

Changes to WG membership should be posted in the agenda, and may be
suggested as any other agenda item (see "WG Meetings" below).

If an addition or removal is proposed during a meeting, and the full WG
is not in attendance to participate, then the addition or removal is
added to the agenda for the subsequent meeting. This is to ensure
that all members are given the opportunity to participate in all
membership decisions. If a WG member is unable to attend a meeting
where a planned membership decision is being made,
then their consent is assumed.

No more than 1/3 of the voting WG members may be affiliated with the same
employer. If removal or resignation of a WG member, or a change of
employment by a WG member, creates a situation where more than 1/3
of the WG membership shares an employer, then the situation must be
immediately remedied by the resignation or removal of one or more
WG members affiliated with the over-represented employer(s).
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We should do a quick parse of the members list to make sure this isn't the case prior to ratification

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agreed


## WG Meetings

The WG meets regularly, check the foundation calendar for details.
One of the WG members will volunteer to act as the moderator
for each meeting subject to agreement from the rest of the
members. Each meeting should be published to YouTube.

Items are added to the WG agenda that are considered contentious or are
modifications of governance, contribution policy,
WG membership, or release process.

The intention of the agenda is not to approve or review all patches;
that should happen continuously on GitHub and be handled
by the larger group of Collaborators.

Any community member or contributor can ask that something be
added to the next meeting's agenda by logging a GitHub Issue.
Any Collaborator, WG member or the moderator can add the item
to the agenda by adding the WG-agenda tag to the issue.

Prior to each WG meeting the moderator will share the Agenda with
members of the WG. WG members can add any items they like to the
agenda at the beginning of each meeting.

The WG may invite persons or representatives from certain
projects to participate in a non-voting capacity.

The moderator is responsible for summarizing the discussion of
each agenda item and sends it as a pull request after the meeting.

## Consensus Seeking Process

The WG follows a Consensus Seeking decision-making model.

When an agenda item has appeared to reach a consensus the moderator
will ask "Does anyone object?" as a final call for dissent from the consensus.

If an agenda item cannot reach a consensus a WG member can call for either a
closing vote or a vote to table the issue to the next meeting. The call for
a vote must be seconded by a majority of the WG or else the
discussion will continue. Simple majority wins.

Note that changes to WG membership require unanimous consensus.
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Ditto.

See "WG Membership" above.
84 changes: 70 additions & 14 deletions README.md
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# Node.js Long-term Support Working Group
# Node.js Release Working Group

# LTS schedule<sup>1</sup>
## Release schedule<sup>1</sup>

| Release | LTS Status | Codename | Active LTS Start | Maintenance Start | Maintenance End |
| :--: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
Expand All @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
| 9.x |No LTS | | | | |
| 10.x |**Pending** | Pending | October 2018 | April 2020 | April 2021 |

* <sup>1</sup>: All scheduled dates are subject to change by the Node.js LTS
* <sup>1</sup>: All scheduled dates are subject to change by the Node.js Release
working group or Node.js Core Technical Committee.
* <sup>2</sup>: The 8.x *Maintenance* LTS cycle is currently scheduled to expire
early on December 31, 2019 to align with the scheduled End-of-Life of
Expand All @@ -23,10 +23,48 @@

<p><img src="schedule.png" alt="LTS Schedule"/></p>

The LTS Schedule is available also as a [JSON][] file or [ICal][]. There is
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LTS working group is referred to above, I assume that should be either the Release working group or the LTS team.

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Done

The Release schedule is available also as a [JSON][] file or [ICal][]. There is

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Does this mean that Current releases will have to follow a schedule as well?

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I don't think we intended to enforce a schedule for Current releases, although there was some discussion in the LTS meeting that something like a 2 week interval might make sense.

also a live [Google Calendar][] that may be subscribed to.

# LTS Plan
## Mandate

The Release working group's purpose is:

* Management/execution of the release and support process for all releases.

Its responsibilities are:

* Define the release process.
* Define the content of releases.
* Generate and create releases.
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  • Test Releases

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Done

* Test Releases
* Manage the LTS and Current branches including backporting changes to
these branches.
* Define the policy for what gets backported to release streams.

The Release working group is structured into teams and membership in
the working group does not automatically result in membership in these
teams. These teams are:

* Releasers team
* LTS team
* CITGM team

The `releasers` team is entrusted with the secrets and CI access to be able
build and sign releases. **Additions to the releasers team must be approved
by the CTC.**

The Long Term Support (LTS) team manages the process/content of LTS releases
and the required backporting for these releases. Additions to the LTS
team needs sign off from the rest of the LTS team.

The Canary in the Gold Mine (CITGM) team maintains CITGM as one of
the key sanity checks for releases. This team maintains the CITGM
repository and works to keep CITGM builds running and passing regularly.
This also includes maintaining the CI jobs in collaboration with the Build
Working Group.

## Release Plan

New semver-major releases of Node.js are cut from `master` every six months.
New even-numbered versions (e.g. v6, v8, v10, etc) are cut in April. New
Expand All @@ -48,7 +86,7 @@ Given this schedule, there will be no more than two active LTS releases at any
given time, overlapping for a maximum period of six months.

Once a major version enters LTS coverage, new features (semver-minor) may only
be landed with consent of the CTC and the LTS Working Group. No semver-major
be landed with consent of the Release working group. No semver-major
changes other than those required for critical security fixes may be landed.

Changes in an LTS-covered major version are limited to:
Expand All @@ -66,7 +104,7 @@ Changes in an LTS-covered major version are limited to:

Generally changes are expected to live in a *Current* release for at least 2
weeks before being backported. It is possible for a commit to land earlier at
the discretion of the LTS Working Group and the maintainers of the LTS branches.
the discretion of the Release working group and the maintainers of the LTS branches.

Once a release moves into Maintenance mode, only ***critical*** bugs,
***critical*** security fixes, and documentation updates will be permitted.
Expand All @@ -76,14 +114,14 @@ Note that while it is possible that critical security and bug fixes may lead to
rare and will land as *semver-minor* bumps in the LTS covered version.

All LTS releases will be assigned a "codename" drawn from the names of elements
on the Periodic Table of Elements. For each upcoming LTS release, the LTS
Working Group will select a handful of candidate names and submit those for a
on the Periodic Table of Elements. For each upcoming LTS release, the Release
working group will select a handful of candidate names and submit those for a
collaborator vote.

An odd-numbered major release will cease to be actively updated when the
subsequent even-numbered major release is cut.

## LTS Staging Branches
### LTS Staging Branches

Every LTS major version has two branches in the GitHub repository: a release
branch and a staging branch. The release branch is used to cut new releases.
Expand All @@ -98,7 +136,7 @@ commits are backported for a future Node.js v4 release, those must come in the
form of pull requests opened against the `v4.x-staging` branch. **Commits are
only landed in the `v4.x` branch when a new `v4.x` release is being prepared.**

## Node abstraction layer
### Node abstraction layer

It should be stated that the abstraction layer (currently [`NAN`][]) should
support all *current* LTS releases. Given that Active LTS will overlap
Expand All @@ -114,14 +152,32 @@ any given point in time, fully support a maximum of 2 LTS releases.
[ICal]: schedule.ical
[`NAN`]: https://github.com/nodejs/nan

## LTS Team members
The working group members are the union of the LTS, Releasers
and CITGM team members listed below.

## LTS Team members
* Gibson Fahnestock [@gibfahn](https://github.com/gibfahn)
* James M Snell [@jasnell](https://github.com/jasnell)
* Jeremiah Senkpiel [@Fishrock123](https://github.com/Fishrock123)
* Michael Dawson [@mhdawson](https://github.com/mhdawson)
* Myles Borins [@MylesBorins](https://github.com/MylesBorins)
* Rod Vagg [@rvagg](https://github.com/rvagg)
* Sam Roberts [@sam-github](https://github.com/sam-github)

Github team for LTS: https://github.com/orgs/nodejs/teams/lts
### Releasers team
* Colin Ihrig [@cjihrig](https://github.com/cjihrig)
* Evan Lucas [@evanlucas](https://github.com/evanlucas)
* Italo A. Casas [@italoacasas](https://github.com/italoacasas)
* James M Snell [@jasnell](https://github.com/jasnell)
* Jeremiah Senkpiel [@Fishrock123](https://github.com/Fishrock123)
* Myles Borins [@MylesBorins](https://github.com/MylesBorins)
* Rod Vagg [@rvagg](https://github.com/rvagg)

### CITGM team
* Bartosz Sosnowski [@bzoz](https://github.com/bzoz)
* Bryan English [@bengl](https://github.com/bengl)
* George Adams [@gdams](https://github.com/gdams)
* Gibson Fahnestock [@gibfahn](https://github.com/gibfahn)
* James M Snell [@jasnell](https://github.com/jasnell)
* Michaël Zasso [@targos](https://github.com/targos)
* Myles Borins [@MylesBorins](https://github.com/MylesBorins)
* Richard Lau [@richardlau](https://github.com/richardlau)