llvm dev - Apr 2020 - What is the process for release notes for LLVM

Hi all,

I'm aware that LLVM has release notes, but I've never written one
myself,
despite making at times some fairly significant changes to the various llvm
tools. Is there any documentation in LLVM on when a release note is
appropriate and how to write one? Should reviewers be asking people to
write release notes as part of reviews?

James
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The way things work in practice is, when it’s time for a release, the release
manager makes a general plea for people to write release notes.  This might
include pleas to individuals whom the release manager has noticed made a
note-worthy change; I seem to remember getting one such email once upon a time.

Asking for a release note as part of the review would be a new thing, but IMO
brilliant.
--paulr

From: llvm-dev <llvm-dev-bounces at lists.llvm.org> On Behalf Of James
Henderson via llvm-dev
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 8:58 AM
To: llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>
Subject: [llvm-dev] What is the process for release notes for LLVM

Hi all,

I'm aware that LLVM has release notes, but I've never written one
myself, despite making at times some fairly significant changes to the various
llvm tools. Is there any documentation in LLVM on when a release note is
appropriate and how to write one? Should reviewers be asking people to write
release notes as part of reviews?

James
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This approximately follows my understanding and expectation.

I think that, if you have commit access, commits to improve release notes fall
under the contribution guidelines for documentation and therefore do not require
a full Phabricator review.

I know Alex Bradbury tries to coordinate the RISC-V backend-related release
notes based on the backend changes since the last release, and this seems to
work well (in some cases soliciting notes, in some cases just writing up what
others had done). It does seem that role should not just fall on the shoulders
of a backend or component owner, though.

I would agree that it could be easier to update release notes in patches that
make the changes to keep everything together, although I'm not sure how this
affects backporting patches (solving merge conflicts in release notes seems like
it could be rather infuriating if it happened a lot).

Sam

> On 29 Apr 2020, at 2:05 pm, Robinson, Paul via llvm-dev <llvm-dev at
lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> 
> The way things work in practice is, when it’s time for a release, the
release manager makes a general plea for people to write release notes.  This
might include pleas to individuals whom the release manager has noticed made a
note-worthy change; I seem to remember getting one such email once upon a time.
>  
> Asking for a release note as part of the review would be a new thing, but
IMO brilliant.
> --paulr
>  
> From: llvm-dev <llvm-dev-bounces at lists.llvm.org> On Behalf Of
James Henderson via llvm-dev
> Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 8:58 AM
> To: llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>
> Subject: [llvm-dev] What is the process for release notes for LLVM
>  
> Hi all,
>  
> I'm aware that LLVM has release notes, but I've never written one
myself, despite making at times some fairly significant changes to the various
llvm tools. Is there any documentation in LLVM on when a release note is
appropriate and how to write one? Should reviewers be asking people to write
release notes as part of reviews?
>  
> James
> _______________________________________________
> LLVM Developers mailing list
> llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
> https://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev
--
Sam Elliott
Software Team Lead
Senior Software Developer - LLVM and OpenTitan
lowRISC CIC