CommitFest #3 and upcoming schedule - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

The third CommitFest for PostgreSQL 9.3 development is now officially 
active.  If you have the time and interest to review one of the many 
patches submitted, claim it by adding yourself as a reviewer in the 
CommitFest application at 
https://commitfest.postgresql.org/action/commitfest_view?id=16

Project guidelines now ask each patch submitter to review patches of the 
same number and approximate complexity as they submit.  If you've 
submitted some items to the CommitFest, please look at the open list and 
try to find something you can review.

If you want to contribute to the development of PostgreSQL and you 
haven't yet reviewed any patches yet, please read 
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/CommitFest and follow the appropriate 
links for information about getting started.  You necessarily don't need 
to be a C coder to help.  We need people to test, benchmark, and check 
documentation, too.  If you'd like to try reviewing but are not sure 
which patch you want to look at, please send me an email off-list with 
your areas of interest and a summary of your skill-set; I can help you 
pick one.

This CF is scheduled to run from the 15th of November to the 15th of 
December.  Starting now any new patches should now be submitted to the 
next CF, the last one for 9.3: 
https://commitfest.postgresql.org/action/commitfest_view?id=17

I just moved a more readable copy of the schedule made during the 2012 
Developer's Meeting to 
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PostgreSQL_9.3_Development_Plan to help 
make some changes made in the community development process easier to 
see.  There are two new ideas there worth explaining as we approach the 
two periods they'll occur during.

The last week of this CommitFest (December 8 to 15) will include a new 
planning week.  This aims to help plan what work will be done up to and 
during the final CF for 9.3, starting on January 15.  The idea is to 
make sure large features have identified reviewers and committers, and 
determine whether it seems feasible to complete them during this 
release.  Last year the final CommitFest for the 9.2 release included a 
large number of submissions that significantly delayed moving toward 
feature freeze.  The planning week hopes to identify things that risk 
schedule slip again and set better expectations for them.  Large code 
submissions that arrive later, such that they haven't already been 
addressed during that planning week, are unlikely to be considered for 
commit in 9.3.

The other change is for the final 9.3 CommitFest, which is adding a 
"triage" focus from Feb 1–7.  The idea here is to focus on the sometimes 
hard decisions about whether the new features still being worked on just 
needs a final push of work, or if they are simply not ready to commit yet.

There are 67 code submissions and 7 documentation patches open right now 
for today's 9.3 CF#3 2012-11.  That makes this large but not 
unprecedented.  Last year at this time there were 47 code entries open, 
and the record 2012-01 CF opened with 96 submissions.

-- 
Greg Smith   2ndQuadrant US    greg@2ndQuadrant.com   Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support www.2ndQuadrant.com