Changes between Version 7 and Version 8 of WebKitGTK/MaintenanceTips

Timestamp:

Mar 24, 2019 10:16:46 AM (5 years ago)

Author:

Michael Catanzaro

Comment:

More tips

WebKitGTK/MaintenanceTips

@@ -21 +21 @@
 == Zero Regressions?
 
-WebKit has a zero regressions policy, meaning any committer can roll out any patch if it's found to introduce a regression. That said, apply common sense. If buildbots are broken, that's an emergency and it makes sense to roll out the offending patch now and then think about how to fix the problem later. If WebKitGTK no longer works at all or has suffered some other severe regression, roll out the offending patch now and ask questions later. But usually the issue is more minor, and it would make more sense to talk to the developer who introduced the issue before rolling it out, or to not roll it out at all. Developers usually don't enjoy seeing work rolled out, and you won't make friends by rolling out patches unnecessarily. It's not unusual for a patch to fix a major issue while also introducing a less-serious issue; it wouldn't make sense to roll out a patch in blind adherence to zero regressions if that would reduce the quality of WebKit overall.
+WebKit has a zero regressions policy, meaning any committer can roll out any patch if it's found to introduce a regression. That said, apply common sense. If buildbots are broken, that's an emergency and it makes sense to roll out the offending patch now and then think about how to fix the problem later. If WebKitGTK no longer works at all or has suffered some other severe regression, then again, roll out the offending patch now and ask questions later. But usually the issue is more minor, and it would make more sense to talk to the developer who introduced the issue before rolling it out, or to not roll it out at all. Developers usually don't enjoy seeing work rolled out, and you won't make friends by rolling out patches unnecessarily. It's not unusual for a patch to fix a major issue while also introducing a less-serious issue; it wouldn't make sense to roll out a patch in blind adherence to zero regressions if that would reduce the quality of WebKit overall. Generally, cross-platform patches should be rolled out only if the regression is severe. Platform-specific WPE/GTK patches can be rolled out more aggressively.
 
 == Security
@@ -66 +66 @@
 
 JavaScriptCore security fixes often involve very large diffs. Backporting these manually when there are conflicts is often quite risky. Instead, be aggressive in backporting whatever other commits are necessary from trunk in order to make the security fix backport more cleanly.
+
+**Always** search for the revision number (in trac, or the git log) of the commit you are backporting to see if it is mentioned in other commits. If the revision number is mentioned in subsequent commits, it's probably because the revision introduced a regression. If you forget to check, Murphy's Law guarantees you will backport a commit introducing a known regression.