[Bioc-devel] Changing 'release' versus 'devel' branches of Bioconductor

[Martin Morgan]

Developers --

Only critical bug-fix changes are appropriate for the 'release' branch
of Bioconductor, i.e., in the svn repository beginning with

 https://hedgehog.fhcrc.org/bioconductor/branches/RELEASE_2_5/

All other changes, including introduction of new features and minor bug
fixes, must be restricted to the 'devel' repository

  https://hedgehog.fhcrc.org/bioconductor/trunk/

Please ask if you are uncertain about whether changes you are
considering are appropriate for the release branch.

The release branch is meant to provide a stable environment for
reproducible research, and this stability is compromised whenever change
is introduced.

A consequence of this is that users seeking new features MUST use the
development version of R. This is appropriate, because it represents an
explicit choice on the part of the user, showing that they are willing
to take on the added instability of software that is still under active
development.

It is NOT appropriate to suggest that the user install the development
version of a package on top of the release version of other packages.
The mailing list is littered with posts where this leads to
unanticipated problems.

Under extraordinary conditions, the Bioconductor team will take active
steps to enforce this policy, including reverting non-critical changes
and restricting access to the svn release branch repository.

Additional developer information is available at

  http://wiki.fhcrc.org/bioc/DeveloperPage
  http://wiki.fhcrc.org/bioc/HowTo
  http://wiki.fhcrc.org/bioc/HowTo/Update_Release_Branch


Best wishes,

Martin
-- 
Martin Morgan
Computational Biology / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
1100 Fairview Ave. N.
PO Box 19024 Seattle, WA 98109

Location: Arnold Building M1 B861
Phone: (206) 667-2793