Release Schedule for 24.11

[RossComputerGuy]

	Date	Branches Affected	Events
✔️	Sep, 27	-	Ask ecosystems for desired changes, in "Feature Freeze"
✔️	Oct, 11	All branches	Restrict breaking changes to Release Critical Packages
✔️	Oct, 25	All branches	Restrict all breaking changes: allow only non-breaking updates and Desktop Manager changes
✔️	Oct, 30	master	(Day before ZHF) merge staging-next into master, prep for ZHF
✔️	Nov, 1	master	Begin ZHF, Focus on minimizing regressions in PRs targeting master
✔️	Nov, 6	master	Merge first staging-next fixes into master; begin second staging-next cycle
✔️	Nov, 8	staging	Unrestrict all breaking changes; new changes will not be present in master before branch-off
✔️	Nov, 12	master	Merge second staging-next fix cycle
✔️	Nov, 13	staging-next	Unrestrict all breaking changes; new changes will not be present in master before branch-off
✔️	Nov, 14	master, release-24.11	Perform Branch-off, create release channels, create new beta / unstable tags
✔️	Nov, 15	master, release-24.11	ZHF transitions to "backporting" workflow
✔️	Nov, 16	release-24.11	Prepare for release, finish remaining issues
	Nov, 30	release-24.11	Release! Also, ZHF ends
	Dec, 4	-	Release Retrospective Meeting

Note: Dates reflected are in AoE (Anywhere on Earth) time.

[nixos-discourse]

This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/24-11-release-cycle-coming-up/51549/1

[hacscred]

#296953 should be tagged a release blocker.

[RossComputerGuy]

@hacscred Seems like that problem has already been fixed.

[aviallon]

Can you make this issue only closeable by the release managers? I have the permissions to close this, and I hope no one accidentally closes this.

GitHub permissions model is not very fine grained.

[hacscred]

@hacscred Seems like that problem has already been fixed.

It hasn't.

[RossComputerGuy]

We've reached the 2nd step in the schedule, all release critical packages are blocked.

[RossComputerGuy]

We're in the feature freeze, only non breaking changes now.

[nixos-discourse]

This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/the-myth-of-stable-unstable/55516/14

[dotlambda]

I created the backport staging-24.11 label because current staging won't be merged into 24.11. Maybe that could be mentioned in the release manual but I guess the label doesn't make too much sense since the branch doesn't exist yet.

[aviallon]

Missing reference to current staging-next merge request: #354201

[Mic92]

Would be good to get nix 2.18 out of the nixos closure for the next release so we only have one nix version: #355745

[jficz]

possibly a stupid question but is there a release notes draft available somewhere?
never mind, found it: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2411.section.md

[juliusrickert]

Both the nixos:release-24.05 jobset and the nixos:release-24.11 jobset have a negative check interval of -129600 (-36 hours). The check interval of the nixos:release-24.05 jobset changed from 129600 to -129600 within the last day, while the nixos:release-24.11 jobset had a negative check interval for a few days now. Jobsets of older releases still have a positive value.

Do you think this is intentional? For five days, the release-24.11 branch has not been evaluated.

[vcunat]

I've been managing these manually now. More big 24.11 evals at this point didn't seem worth the delay of #356895 and thus the whole release.

EDIT: 24.05 is a bit off topic, but its big channel is blocked on https://hydra.nixos.org/build/279608174#tabs-buildsteps anyway, so we'd again delay other stuff that is not blocked.

[TheRealGramdalf]

If it's too late already it's too late, but I've been trying to get #357105 merged and backported before release. Is that still realistically possible, or would there be additional evals for the backport PR that would delay things?
I'm fine either way, but I'd like to know since if it's been missed I'll need to edit the PR.

Edit: Merged, thanks!

[RossComputerGuy]

Forgot to mention this yesterday, if it isn't clear or anyone hasn't been on the staging matrix, we have had to delay 24.11 and let a staging cycle go through. There was a regression in curl which broke things and we didn't want it to cause a major impact.

[Thatoo]

let a staging cycle go through.
@RossComputerGuy may i ask what does that mean and thus how long does a "cycle" last (more or less)?

[RossComputerGuy]

Basically we have to wait for #356895, @vcunat might have an idea for how long that'll take. It mostly depends on how fast our builders are able to go through things.

[vcunat]

I'm afraid I'd estimate that the next weekend we'll have the binaries and channel including this.

[llakala]

Forgot to mention this yesterday, if it isn't clear or anyone hasn't been on the staging matrix, we have had to delay 24.11 and let a staging cycle go through. There was a regression in curl which broke things and we didn't want it to cause a major impact.

Maybe make an announcement on Discourse saying the same thing?

[RossComputerGuy]

The 24.11 1st staging cycle completed. Thank you @vcunat for getting that through. Saturday, Nov 30th, might end up being the day we get the release out. But that doesn't stop anyone from using it right now, we have the channels up but there's that curl netrc issue plus other possible issues ZHF and others have worked through.

[vcunat]

To be clear, only the nixos-24.11-small channel contains that rebuild right now, but the big ones should follow soon. (and we do have basically all binaries in cache.nixos.org already; it's tests and stuff missing)