Should there be a version 4.10.0 of Ansible after the release of Ansible 5.0.0 ?

[dmsimard]

Summary

Ansible 5 is scheduled to be released on 2021-11-30.

We are currently up to Ansible 4.7.0 (released Oct 13th) and with the pace of a maintenance release every three weeks we will have:

• Ansible 4.8.0 on 2021-11-02
• Ansible 4.9.0 on 2021-11-23
• and then, should we decide in the affirmative, Ansible 4.10.0 on 2021-12-14.

We've so far stopped running maintenance releases after the following major version came out but it may be appropriate or desired by the community to do a release of 4.10.0.

In any case, we would like to announce the last version in advance and need to decide whether that will be 4.9.0 or 4.10.0.

[felixfontein]

I don't mind having a 4.10.0 release, but since I don't have to do the release work, I'm a bit biased ;-) I'm also OK with no 4.10.0 being there, I would let the people having to do the actual release decide whether they want to do it or not.

[tadeboro]

I think 4.10.0 would be nice to have since there is usually a non-negligible amount of updates that go into each release. That would give people like me that usually wait until x.1.0 release before switching to the next major version in production a few additional weeks for migration.

But as @felixfontein said, if creating a new version takes a lot of effort, the additional release might not be worth it.

[samccann]

FWIW - this has a docs impact. Today, we support docs for /latest/ and /devel/ only. Once Ansible 5 comes out, Ansible 4 is no longer 'findable' so to speak, since /latest/ becomes Ansible 5. Ansible 4 will still be there, but won't be included in the left-hand version switcher on the docsite. A reader would need to hack the url to replace /latest/ with /4/.

So part of this decision should be - is that okay, or do we need to add Ansible 4 to the version switcher for 'some period of time TBD' ?

Off the top of my head, it's doable and shouldn't be significant extra work, but it is something else we need to decide.

[felixfontein]

During the meeting, we agreed to:

• On the docsite, we want 4 not to be in the version switcher once Ansible 5 is latest
• We prefer 4.10.0 to be released except if @dmsimard doesn't want to do the work

[tadeboro]

We also need to decide about the 4.10.0 release relatively soon and document the decision somewhere. And in those docs, we should also probably be clear that this release is there just to make the 4->5 transition a bit easier and less rushed.

[dmsimard]

We also need to decide about the 4.10.0 release relatively soon and document the decision somewhere.

It looks like we are all in agreement that a 4.10.0 release is appropriate so we'll do it.
My understanding is that this issue along with the fact that it was discussed during the community meeting is sufficient to record the decision, do you feel we need something else ?

And in those docs, we should also probably be clear that this release is there just to make the 4->5 transition a bit easier and less rushed.

In terms of communication, it will -- at the very least -- be mentioned in:

• The Ansible 4.8.0, 4.9.0 and 4.10.0 release announcements (see 4.7.0 under 'What's the schedule for new Ansible releases after 4.7.0? ', for example)
• The bullhorn

In addition, although we haven't done it for 3.x, it might be worthwhile to also write it down in the roadmap documentation: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/roadmap/COLLECTIONS_4.html (we can probably go back and add the date of the last 3.x release while we're at it)

[dmsimard]

Announced that 4.10.0 will be the last 4.x release in the 4.8.0 release announcement: https://groups.google.com/g/ansible-announce/c/at_Cjdu-gh4

[dmsimard]

Also announced that 4.10.0 will be the last 4.x release in the 5.0.0b1 release announcement: https://groups.google.com/g/ansible-announce/c/McUbCQevk-Q