Passing the time during a RC vote, a Release Management perspective.

The Apache Karaf 2.2.3 RC is currently up for vote for 72 hours, during this time we wait for our users and developers to download the staged kits (or build from svn tags) and test them out.
I've had some users ask just what are we supposed to do in order to test a RC? Well there is no set list of tasks to perform, but here are some suggestions:

• Download the kit appropriate to the operating system you're using (zip for windows, tar.gz for *nix systems), extract the files, and run the bin/karaf script to see if it boots to command prompt.
• Assuming the Karaf prompt boots, try issuing a few commands. If you have a project you're hosting on Karaf try installing it and see how it operates.
• If you're looking to try the source code, then checkout from the release tag and try a full maven clean install on your platform. 

So now that you've tested the Karaf RC, what do you do if you've found an issue? The first thing to do is report it to vote email thread (assuming its still in progress). Generally the information we'll need includes the platform you're working on, versions of maven & java, and a description of the error you've encountered. So a report such as "Attempted build on AIX 6 with Maven 2.2.1 & JDK 1.6 and found Class Not Found error in package XYZ during source build" would be greatly appreciated. If you've found that everything is in working order with the RC then please by all means reply to the vote thread with your +1 (it's counted as non-binding if you do not belong to the project PMC, however we greatly appreciate every vote an RC receives).

So while our users and contributors are testing the latest Karaf RC, what does the Release Manager do? It's the RM's responsibility to monitor the vote email thread, respond to enquiries, and make clarifications. If a critical or blocking issue is reported then the RM will have to mitigate the issue or cancel the vote, and see that the issue is reported for resolution and a new release candidate scheduled with the appropriate fix(s) applied. In the case of Apache Karaf, unlike other projects, the RM also takes this time to sample a fine bottle of wine and listen music (and quite often cook a lot). In the case of Karaf 2.2.3 RC for example, the RM is sampling Chateau Roc de Bernon Puisseguin-Saint-Emilion 2006 and listening to Joel Plaskett albums, while BBQing on a sunny patio deck.

Hanging out on the patio, flipping burgers - monitoring for RC questions and votes. Release management requires many sacrifices ;)

If you'd like to get involved in testing the Apache Karaf 2.2.3 RC please check out the following links:

Temporary online copy of Apache Karaf 2.2.3 release notes (will be published upon passing of vote):

https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/karaf/site/trunk/src/main/webapp/index/community/download/karaf-2.2.3-release.page

Staging repository (obtain kits from here - note this link will only work while staged):

https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachekaraf-071/

Release tags (checkout the source from this tag for test building):

https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/karaf/tags/karaf-2.2.3/

Apache Karaf Sonar instance

Apache Karaf now has a sonar instance running at:
https://analysis.apache.org/dashboard/index/70830 (thanks Olivier Lamy for setting it up).

If you're not familiar with Sonar it's a platform for managing code quality, covering architecture & design, duplications, unit tests, complexity, potential bugs, coding rules, and comments - all from analyzing the projects source code. If you're interested in learning more about Sonar please visit their site: http://www.sonarsource.org.

Mun Fall 2011 Computer Science Team Games

Each Fall semester at Memorial University's Computer Science Department an ACM style team competition is held. These competitions are very similar to the singles competitions with the exception that teams consist of three students and the challenges are more difficult. To help boost interest in this Fall semester's team games I've gone ahead and provided the CS department with some additional prizes.

The Prizes!

Third Place: Each team member will receive a Mun market bag, 24 sleeve CD/DVD binder,  air duster,  USB card reader, 12 pack box of pens, and a copy of O'Reilly Java Pocket Reference.

Second Place: Each team member will receive a Mun market bag, 24 sleeve CD/DVD binder, package of cord wraps, Mun logo pen, USB card reader, air duster, and a copy of O'Reilly C++ Pocket Reference.

First Place: Each team member will receive a Mun market bag, 48 sleeve CD/DVD binder,  tin of BBQ Pringles, Ubuntu 11.04 Server Install Disc, copy of IEEE Spectrum, and large tin of instant coffee. The first place team also gets to advance to the next round of the competition (see Mun CS department for more details).

The Fall 2011 CS Team Games are tentatively scheduled for September 23rd, in room EN2036 at 5pm. When a link to the information regarding competition rules, and other details becomes available I'll update this post.

Memorial University CS Games Fall 2011 Competitions Coming Soon!

I've been asked by several Mun CS students over the summer if there will be CS Games held this fall, and if so will there be prizes? To answer, yes there will be CS Games in both Singles and Team competitions. As to prizes, here is a snapshot of the collected loot currently residing in my CS Games treasure chest.

I'll be posting details on the Singles and Teams games when they become available, and detail the prizes for first, second, and third places when the loot is finalized :)

Apache Karaf JDK7 support coming soon!

Barely a month since my last post on adding JDK7 support to Apache Karaf and we're nearly there! The current Karaf 2.2.x branch and trunk (3.0.0) are compiling and running with JDK7.

You can expect the first release with JDK7 support to appear with the upcoming 2.2.3 patch update, then from the start with Karaf 3.0.0.