Besu : 2023-10-02 Contributor Call - AMEA Friendly Time

Agenda

•  Housekeeping
  • Antitrust notice - https://www.linuxfoundation.org/antitrust-policy/
  • This meeting is being recorded
  • Please Mute unless speaking
  • If you have a question use the raise hand feature
• General Announcements
  • Logo Discussion -
    • No issues among maintainers - looks fine 
• Release updates
  • NOTE docs release process change for docusaurus - requires a PR (not just a github release)
  • 23.7.x series - trialling releasing from a release branch per - (RFC) Reprise: Release Candidates from Main For Every Release
    • (Incorporates both Proposal: Quarterly releases from main by default AND Proposal: Avoid Cherry-Picked Releases)
    • (from Simon) This did not work well for 23.7.3-RC, hopefully Gary has enough context to discuss the issues, but the main ones were:
      • Carrying out the release was complicated and error prone: cherry picking still needed to happen even though it was a release from main - it could be scripted BUT...
      • There's a manual part of the process where we have to work out from which commit to start the cherry-pick.
      • Discord thread: https://discord.com/channels/905194001349627914/943252457063075880/1153922976736104449
    • NOTES ON CALL:
      • Good:
        • Can merge to main
        • Good squash/commit history
        • Can easily abort release candidates that fail and does not create candidate docker images that users may pick up by accident 
      • Bad:
        • Different SHAs for cherry picks, more fraught history
        • Need admin to disable branch protection rules for new release branches 
      • Only Gary and Simon have used this release process 
      • Human required process needs to identify which SHA commit we start the release from 
      • Need work around automation and process itself 
      • 23.10.0 -
        • Should take this into the automation realm → iterating on scripts for release automation 
      • Fabio would like to try this process on next release 
      • We will pilot this release process before making it official - perhaps in 24.1.0 
  • 23.7.3-RC release update from Ameziane - Memory usage investigations on 23.7.3-RC
    • PLAN FROM CALL: 
      • Check with Danno RE required release timeline for Swirld's Labs
        • If needed within a week: cherry pick on 23.7.3 for a .4 release
        • Otherwise, include in 23.10.0 and begin burn-in on Friday after code freeze 
  • Enterprise Releases proposal - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oeI2fq3jBYFyQHj4kHb1OemAzI1L6DRudkEtZRSYabM/  - NOTES BELOW: 
    • Starting point → Release candidate is cut and socialized with ALL contributor groups 
    • RCs can be tested within any organizations environment and with their own testing suite and then results are socialized
      • Socializing RCs for parties in the #besu-release channel 
      • Normal time-bound is Friday → Wed/Thurs of the following week 
      • Agreement on results can pause a release → This is probably where we need the most consensus among maintainers
    • Extension of acceptance tests for private / permissioned chains ?
    • Need to iron out what process may be used for private chains (Kaleido action item, perhaps) 
    • Need to ensure we are marrying up use-case distributions work discussed previously (modularity) with an interim strategy here 
    • Consider docker and kubernetes setups and other cloud environments, perhaps 
  • Defaults:
    • Snap, Bonsai, and Archive 
    • Private networks do care about these features and will need to understand what will be the impact to their networks 
• Work Updates
  • Cancun
    
    • devnet 9 - already started, besu is contributing with a minor stake. encountering proposal problems still being debugged.
    • hive tests relevant to devnet 9 are all passing but 4, 1 of those is pending update from test authors.
• Other Business
  • Proposal: Discord Server Pub/Priv Channel Split - unanimous at this stage for the "besu enterprise" channel name
    • "besu-enterprise" as a great name for private/enterprise use-cases
    • Landed on two recommendations in Matt N's comment on the proposal above 
  • [ACCEPTED] DEBUG Log Improvement Proposal - reminder about this one, looking for feedback. If no major objections will make it a policy and continue submitting PRs to make our current logging conform.
• Open Forum
  • /add item/
• Future Topics
  • /add item/

Recordings

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0MZ85B_96CHpqsKmljUK8HB98wK67RjC