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Releasing new version so often makes it hard on networks with multi servers. By the time I finish upgrading all my servers, there is new version already.
Maybe you will not agree with my opinion, but I find it hard to keep up, since I do everything myself on my network.

DonTCry wrote: ↑Mon Oct 02, 2017 2:22 am Releasing new version so often makes it hard on networks with multi servers. By the time I finish upgrading all my servers, there is new version already.
Maybe you will not agree with my opinion, but I find it hard to keep up, since I do everything myself on my network.

Since I assume you understand that a security fix is outside the normal release schedule I'm going to assume you refer to our general # of releases per year.

With 4.0.x we follow the following principle (from FAQ):

With UnrealIRCd 4.0.x we push out a release about every 2 months, even if there are only minor changes. This makes sure that at least new installations benefit from recent fixes and enhancements. We always try to make clear what changed in each version so you can decide yourself if you want to upgrade or not.

Perhaps this information did not get the attention it deserves? It's after all quite a different approach than we did with 3.2.x.

To illustrate this, let's have a look at past releases.
From an I only want to upgrade in case of relevant crash issues being fixed point of view you are free to skip releases:

• Latest is 4.0.15 but you can use the hot-fix to stay at your current version and patch the ircd without a restart.
• 4.0.14 did not contain any major fixes, no need to install this unless you want the new features
• 4.0.13 well.. it lists 3 major issues but there's only one crash issue, in the websocket module, which perhaps <1% of the people use, and only if an IRCOp on such a connection issues a REHASH.
• 4.0.12 fixes a crash if a ModData module was reloading. Once you read that in the release notes you could also just decide to stay with your previous release and remember not to unload modules.
• 4.0.11 (Feb'17): this fixes a crash issue like 4.0.15. This too could be fixed with hot-fixing without an upgrade or restart.
• 4.0.10 (Jan'17): fixes two crash issues if you did something messy with your configuration file and then /REHASH'ed (rare)
• etc..

Now I'm not saying I'm recommending the "upgrade only in case of relevant crash issues being fixed" POV. Just saying it's a possibility.

If someone installs a new IRCd, it only makes sense they download the latest version from unrealircd.org which includes all the fixes (and new features).

If someone wants the latest features, he/she can upgrade each time... or not.. depending on the features list... again, it's up to the user.

I do my best to write clear release notes so everyone can decide for themselves. But there's always room for improvement.

If you have some feedback as to how we can communicate this better, please do let me know!

With UnrealIRCd 4.0.x we push out a release about every 2 months.

I did read and understand the FAQ, but as I said, it was only my opinion that new release every 2 months is bit to much, and I didnt say this to cause an argument.

Create a poll and ask the users how often would they like to see new release or upgrade their servers.

I just tried to explain the approach we take. Give users a choice if they want to upgrade or not. There are so many different type of users and use cases.

As for changing the '2 months'.. I don't want to get back to the habit of delaying fixes for 4-6 months simply because some people find releases too frequent. This makes no sense. Users who find the releases too frequent could just install every other version (.15, .17, .19, .21, etc) to achieve the same effect. We shouldn't hold back fixes or even features for other users.

Now if there were a lot of regressions, like bugs introduced in version .X that need to be fixed in .X+1 and they could be avoided by having a single release rather than two, then I could agree. But this is not the case. Those only happen sporadically. In fact I can only name two such bugs in past 15 releases.

So, like I said, if you like a '4 month release schedule' then only install all 'odd' or only install all 'even' versions. It's the same.

automate your server updating and installing. or have less servers? Mibbit has 2 thousands users per server, and they only have 2!