[tor-dev] How to best support tor 0.2.3.x in Tor Browser Bundle?

[Erinn Clark]

* Mike Perry <mikeperry at torproject.org> [2012:07:31 14:56 -0700]: 
> Quick recap from #tor-dev IRC convo with Nick, Roger, and Andrew:
> 
> We need to get a usable tor 0.2.3.x-rc bundle out RSN so we can declare
> it "stable", but there are concerns that using Firefox 14 with this will
> continue to cause unexpected problems and otherwise scare people away
> from testing tor 0.2.3.x enough.

How unstable is Firefox 14 though? It is Firefox's stable release, after all.
Are the recently-released bundles unusable?
 
> However, I still need to have a place to commit TBB-alpha patches, and
> have three bugfixes (including a fix for a FF14 crash bug that was
> discovered by tor-qa) that I'd like to get into the alpha series. Also,
> if we don't provide Firefox Rapid Release with regular alpha testing,
> we're going to be really, really sad when everything breaks at once in
> November with the next Firefox ESR.
> 
> One option is to create a temporary "rc" branch of torbrowser.git's
> maint-2.2 to build tor 0.2.3.x but with the rest of a "TBB stable"
> bundle with Vidalia 0.2.x and Firefox 10.x ESR, and leave maint-2.3 as
> "TBB alpha".
> 
> A second option is to create a more permanent "TBB beta" series, with
> whatever software smells like it is getting close to stable at a given
> point in time.

Technically, this is what maint-2.3 should be.
 
> A third option is to just keep doing English-only maint-2.3 builds
> back-to-back until tor-qa stops reporting crash bugs or strange issues.

I think there's a fourth option, which is urge people on the blog, via twitter,
etc, to test the alpha/rc bundles, with me making a commitment to do frequent
releases for any issues that pop up. 

> However, we need input from Erinn to decide the best approach. If the
> "rc" fork (or a permanent beta branch) messes up the build process or
> introduces issues with build automation work, perhaps it is not the
> right way to go, and we should just keep doing english-only maint-2.3
> releases back-to-back until FF14 is more stable (Note: it works OK for
> me now in my test builds with the crash fix applied).

I don't think more bundles is the right answer, in most cases. But let's be
clear about the kind of testing we need first. I think Nick's going to say "ALL
the testing", but 0.2.3.x server-side is pretty well-tested on Linux by now,
fairly poorly tested on Windows, and more or less irrelevant on OSX, with
barely any testing for clients on all three platforms. Sound right?

So depending on the timeline people have in mind, my suggestion is to do a big
push on the aforementioned social networks and shake out as many bugs in the
next week as we can, then iterate. But my opinion depends a bit on how
severe you think the Firefox 14 problem is.

That's the short-term solution for getting 0.2.3.x stable though. Longer term,
I just can't let the alpha bundles lapse again -- it's my fault we're in this
position and I'm really sorry. I think we'll move to a true-experimental bundle
situation as outlined in the HACKING document in torbrowser.git where we can
keep things held up if they aren't going RC in the next 9 months (or at all) .
Then the "middle" branch of TBB can be used strictly for stabilizing.

Happy to hear more input.
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