1.7 Release Plan

This is a draft of the release plan for 1.7. I figure it's important
to document this somewhere other than my grey cells.

Release types
===========
The following define the various types of releases reference
throughout this plan, in order of increasing stability. While there
is no requirement to do any alpha or beta releases, we may choose to
in an effort to get the code into the hands of potential users and
testers much quicker.

Nightly
-------
Nightly builds are tarballs automatically generated with our current
distribution scripts. They are neither tested nor signed, and may not
even build, depending on the current state of trunk (or the designated
branch). Nightly builds should be used with extreme care. Current
nightly tarballs of trunk are available here:
http://people.apache.org/~hwright/svn/nightly/

Alpha
-----
Alpha releases have been tested and signed by the community, but are
considered unstable. Persistent working copy and disk formats in an
alpha release are expected to be "finalized"[1] are expected to remain
the same through the final release. Alpha releases usually contain
known issues, which are summarized in the release announcement. The
signing requirements are somewhat relaxed for alpha releases (the
signatures exist as a tamper-evidence, rather than a
correctness-evidence).

Beta

----
Beta releases improve upon the general stability of alpha releases,
and contain protocols and APIs which are considered to be
"finalized"[1].  Beta releases are tested and signed, but may also
contain known issues, hopefully fewer than alpha releases.  Any issues
are summarized in the release announcement.  Signing policies are
similar to that of alpha releases.
Release Candidate
-----------------
Release candidates are just that: candidates for a final release.
They are tested and signed, and should contain no known issues of
sufficient severity.[2]  Should no serious bugs be found during
testing, a release candidate will become the final release.
Final or Generally Available (GA)
---------------------------------
The tarball which is released to the world as Subversion.  Tested,
signed and blessed by the community for wide-spread consumption.  As
stable as we can get it[2].
Timeline
========
None of the following actions have dates corresponding to them.
Instead, we can progress between stages as dictated by the results of
the previous stage, as well as the consensus of the community.  (The
notable exception is the customary 28-day minimum soak period during
the release candidate stage.)  Full release process details are
available here:
http://subversion.apache.org/docs/community-guide/releasing.html
Events
------
Stabilize on-disk formats
Start publishing frequent alpha releases
Review APIs, protocols
Start publishing frequent beta releases
Branch 1.7.x
Publish first RC / start soak
Publish interim RCs, restarting soak as needed
Publish final RC
Publish Subversion 1.7.0
It looks like we might be fairly close to having on-disk formats
stabilized, and hence rolling alphas.  Prereleases may be fairly
prolific, since I want to work the bugs out of the transition to ASF
distribution infrastructure, and get fixes into the hands of users
rapidly.
If you've got comments or questions, let's hear 'em!
-Hyrum
[1] Of course, we reserve the right to change disk formats and APIs
prior to the generally available release, and will include said caveat
in the release announcements.  The benefit of this guideline is having
at least some sort of user and developer expectation.
[2] No software is bug-free, and we will almost certainly have to make
the painful choice between releasing soon with a bug, or releasing
later with a bug-fix.  The definition of "sufficient severity" is left
as an exercise for the PMC.