Introduction
This page describes the current development and release strategy. See Releases for a roadmap of current and past releases.
History / Motivation
Original release strategy discussion in the forum http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=2905.15
Prior to the adoption of this strategy, there was a single "autobuild" which was both the development trunk and the only version readily available to end users. This made it extremely difficult to implement major changes without negatively impacting users.
Process overview
- A stable release is maintained for bug fixes and ports.
- New features and other major changes to the core code are implemented in an unstable development branch.
- At intervals, the development branch will enter a period of stabilization.
- When the result is judged sufficiently stable, a new stable branch is made, and development of the next version proceeds in the development branch.
Development branch
The development "branch" is always be the trunk, found at http://subversion.assembla.com/svn/chdk/trunk/
All major new features or code re-writes will be done here.
As of July 2013, the development version 1.3.0 is in the "active development phase" as described below.
Autobuilds of the development branch are available from http://mighty-hoernsche.de/trunk/
Development branch lifecycle
- Release branch N created, development for N+1 proceeds in trunk
- Active development phase
- Release branch recommended for users and new ports
- Development of major / disruptive features
- Stabilization phase
- Major features complete
- Development builds suggested for users who want new features
- Low risk features may be added
- Release candidate phase
- Development branch recommended for users
- New ports go in development branch, not back ported by default
- Focus on bug fixes
- Release - GOTO 1
Stable branch
The stable branch represents a "release" where major functionality and features are frozen. New ports may be added to the stable branch.
The stable branch will always be named release-N_M, where N and M are the major and minor version numbers.
As of July 2013, the stable version is 1.2.0, found in the svn branch http://subversion.assembla.com/svn/chdk/branches/release-1_2/
Autobuilds from the stable version are available from http://mighty-hoernsche.de/
Important: stable refers to the feature set, not necessarily the maturity of the software. Stable does not mean that all features are fully functional on all cameras, or that the software won't crash.
Individual ports within the stable branch may vary widely in completeness and functionality. Individual ports will be labeled Alpha or Beta as appropriate.
Ports
It is currently recommended that new ports be developed for the release branch, and ported to the trunk when complete.