Ns-3.6
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This page summarizes the ongoing release planning for ns-3.6. The release manager is Craig Dowell.
Contents
The ns-3.6 Release Schedule
ns-3 releases are based on date-driven schedules as opposed to feature-driven schedules. We decide on a release date and then the release manager works backward to define windows during which time certain activites related to the release can happen. This has been done for ns-3.6 and the important milestones are:
- July 4 -- ns-3.5 posted;
- July 5 -- ns-3.6 Open phase begins;
- August 26 -- Recommended cutoff for new feature submission;
- September 2 -- Deadline for new feature submissions that require design review;
- September 9 -- Approved new feature ready-for-merge deadline;
- September 9 -- Late merge period begins (Merge Week Begins);
- September 16 -- Late merge period ends;
- September 16 -- Open phase ends;
- September 16 -- Maintenance phase begins;
- September 30 -- Maintenance phase ends;
- September 30 -- Code freeze phase begins;
- October 1 -- ns-3.6-RC1;
- October 5 -- ns-3.6-RC2;
- October 8 -- ns-3.6-RC3;
- October 12 -- ns-3.6-RC4;
- October 14 -- ns-3.6 posted;
- October 14 -- Code freeze phase ends;
- October 14 -- ns-3.7 Open phase begins.
As described in the Roadmap there are three broad sections in the release schedule. During the open phase, people wanting to include a new feature in ns-3.6 should contact craigdo and arrange to have their features merged into ns-3-dev. You will be expected to provide the following:
- A mercurial patch or bundle against the current version of ns-3-dev that contains your proposed feature addition. You need to make sure that I can apply this patch and build and run (debug and optimized as appropriate) all unit and regression tests sucessfully on all of our target machines;
- A summary of the additions you are proposing and an explanation of any changes to existing code that had to be done in order to support your feature (this will be used to genenerate release notes and will be provided to maintainers if a code review is indicated);
- Some kind of unit or regression test that I can use to determine if your feature is actually working at each stage of the integration.
I will take a quick look at your proposed addition and determine if a code review is required. According to the book of instructions a code review requiring positive acknowledgement by maintainers is indicated if:
- Your proposed feature does not work with all models or on all platforms;
- Your feature changes pre-existing APIs;
- Your feature crosses maintainer boundaries.
Just to be safe, I will probably run a feature submission by at least one maintainer according to the general area of applicability of the feature. For example, if you submit an entirely new device driver model, as a courtesy I will run this submission by the maintainers of the current devices. The maintainers won't have any responsibility to positively ack the submission, but I will take some time to allow a reasonable review.
I will coordinate new feature merges beginning at the start of the open phase (September 22, 2008). The absolute final deadline for feature inclusion in ns-3.6 is the start of the "Late merge period." This is the time during which I merge the code from all of those people who have waited until the last minute and work out any system integration issues that pop up. If you do wait until the last moment, you are not guaranteed to get your code into ns-3.6 even if it is perfect and completely reviewed. This is a first-in first-out process and will continue as long as resources allow; but don't expect any results. If you miss the start of the late merge period, or have a feature that is not design-reviewed by the start of the late merge period, well, sorry. You get to wait until the ns-3.7 open period to try again.
The end of the late merge period coincides with the beginning of the maintenance phase. No new features may be added, but the maintainers may check in fixes to bugs; and people with new features that have been accepted and previously merged may fix bugs in existing features. Please don't try to sneak in more new features or you may have your whole feature set removed at the release manager's discretion. You can ask me if you want to add small, self-contained features, but there are no guarantees that I will okay them.
On September 30th, we are going to enter the code freeze phase. This indicates that we are in the final stages of the release and our primary goal is stability. During the code freeze phase, only P1 bugfixes will be allowed to be checked in. I will begin my daily annoying emails listing all of the priority one bugs that are outstanding. Our goal will be to reduce the number of P1 bugs to zero before the release of ns-3.6.
I reserve the right to veto (and remove) any new feature addition if it begins to cause problems and looks like it threatens the stability of the release at any time in the release process.
ns-3.6 features added
see the RELEASE_NOTES file in ns-3-dev
ns-3.6 features pending
see the Current_Development page
