Swift 5.6 Release Process

Development Announcements
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This post describes the release process, and estimated schedule for Swift 5.6.

Snapshots of Swift 5.6

Downloadable snapshots of the Swift 5.6 release branch will be posted regularly as part of continuous integration testing. As support is available, snapshot downloads will be added for newly supported platforms.

Once Swift 5.6 is released, the official final builds will also be posted in addition to the snapshots.

Getting Changes into Swift 5.6

On December 7, 2021 the release/5.6 branch will be cut in the swift repository and related project repositories. This will contain the changes that will be released in Swift 5.6. After the branch is cut, changes can be landed on the branch via pull request if they meet the criteria for the release.

Philosophy on Taking Changes into Swift 5.6

  • All language and API changes for Swift 5.6 will go through the Swift
    Evolution     process. Evolution
    proposals should aim to be completed by the branch date in order to
    increase their chances of impacting the Swift 5.6 release. Exceptions
    will be considered on a case-by-case basis, particularly if they tie
    in with the core goal of the release.

  • Other changes (e.g., bug fixes, diagnostic improvements, SourceKit interface
    improvements) will be accepted based on their risk and impact.

  • Low-risk test tweaks will also be accepted late into the release branch if
    it aids in the qualification of the release.

  • As the release converges, the criteria for accepted changes will become
    increasingly restrictive.

Impacted Repositories

The following repositories will have a release/5.6 branch to track
sources as part of Swift 5.6 release:

The llvm-project will have a corresponding swift/release/5.6 branch.

Release Managers

The overall management of the release will be overseen by the following
individuals, who will announce when stricter control of change goes into
effect for the Swift 5.6 release as the release converges.

Platform Release Managers

Please feel free to post on the development forum
or contact Ted Kremenek directly concerning any questions about the release management
process.

Pull Requests for Release Branch

In order for a pull request to be considered for inclusion in the release
branch (release/5.6) after it has been cut, it must include the following
information:

  • Explanation: A description of the issue being fixed or enhancement being
    made. This can be brief, but it should be clear.

  • Scope: An assessment of the impact/importance of the change. For
    example, is the change a source-breaking language change, etc.

  • SR Issue: The SR if the change fixes/implements an issue/enhancement on
    bugs.swift.org.

  • Risk: What is the (specific) risk to the release for taking this change?

  • Testing: What specific testing has been done or needs to be done to
    further validate any impact of this change?

  • Reviewer: One or more code owners
    for the impacted components should review the change. Technical review can
    be delegated by a code owner or otherwise requested as deemed appropriate or
    useful.

All changes going on the release/5.6 branch must go through pull requests that are
accepted by the corresponding release manager.

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2

Thanks for the description of the process, just one small follow up question:

So where can I read about the core goals of the release? (there is no roadmap that I can find at swift.org at least - unless the core goals of the release is implied to be part of the road to swift 6 post by Ted. Perhaps it'd might make sense to have the release core goals on swift.org somewhere in the future, perhaps a short blog post?)

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