Release Management Within Open Source Projects

Abstract

A simple classification system for release management prac-tices is presented. When applied to a set of projects, in this case a set of open source projects, distinctive practices are high-lighted and relative strengths can be assessed. Three projects are studied, the Linux kernel, Subversion, and the Apache HTTP server. Their release practices, as portrayed by the clas-sification system, emerge as a complex combination of subpro-cesses and tools chosen to support specific project goals and properties. Through application of this classification, we iden-tify areas of weaknesses in the projects ' release management processes and conclude with an overview of potential improve-ments to the processes and tools that can be made. 1.