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Carification on Beta and Patch Releases?

Discussion in '5.4 Beta' started by Novack, Apr 27, 2016.

  1. Novack

    Novack

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    Oct 28, 2009
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    I would need help with a clarification. I wasn't able to find details elsewhere on this.

    What is the update relation between the Beta Releases, and the Patch Releses?
    Do Beta Releases include the issues fixed in Patch Releases?

    For example, lets say in the latest Patch Release 5.3.4p5 there is a fix for a given issue. This fix is guaranteed to be also in the latest (or next) Unity 5.4 Beta release?

    Intuitively, one may think it should the case, otherwise a Beta version of the next Unity official release, would still have issues solved in Patches of previous Unity versions, introducing some paradoxical scenarios.

    I do however prefer some educated confirmation.
    Thanks in advance for any insights.
     
  2. elbows

    elbows

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    2,502
    Realities tend to end up more complicate than that at times I think.

    One thing for sure is that there are no guarantees with this stuff. And it can depend what phase the beta has reached, what area of code the fix affects, how long it takes to pass any QA that is applicable for a particular sort of release etc. And fixes can travel in other directions too, e.g. on occasions a fix or feature tweak that appears in a beta is back-ported to the previous stable release at some point.
     
  3. Novack

    Novack

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    Yeah, I know I may have went too far with the "guaranteed" part. But the fact remains that would be good to have some official word on what to expect, at least in general terms. There is always room and understanding for the day to day
    "reality vs rules", but we do need some guidelines (at least) in order to work and move nicely ourselves.
     
  4. elbows

    elbows

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    I don't know as you'll get a guide in general terms that will add much. Sometimes people from Unity will comment on specific issues/bugs on the forum and, when the time is right, will tip us off as to when to expect the fix to land. And they will talk in more general terms about, for example, changes to QA procedures. But some of the process requires a degree of flexibility that a general guide may not cover without remaining rather vague.

    I just don't think the 'paradoxical scenarios' you describe are actually a full paradox, its not that unusual to have versions out of sync in ways. Just look at the list of known issues that have been around for multiple beta releases of 5.4.

    The main thing I'd say with some confidence is that after a version of Unity is released properly (i.e. out of beta), they are going to try to kill important bugs as fast as they are able to in practice, hence us getting weekly patch releases in the first place. But at the beta stage of 5.4 we are supposed to live with various things not working as best we can, with the emphasis being on releasing a stable product in the end rather than rushing to kill all 5.4 issues in every beta. I'm sure they like to keep as in-sync as possible in terms of bringing over 5.3 fixes when applicable, but sometimes, where the codebase has changed significantly for 5.4, thats probably not going to be the priority every week.
     
  5. Alex-Lian

    Alex-Lian

    Guest

    There is no specific relation. They're separate branches and fixes land to them in either order and at differing times for a lot of reasons.

    No, not always. There's two trains leaving the station every week, there's no guarantees to be able to submit changes to both simultaneously always. So, no guarantees. Our desire is "as quick as we can".

    From a theoretical standpoint yes, one might hope everything in a later released version should contain everything from the earlier and lesser version. However, as elbows points out, realities are what they are and more often than not, it's not as simple as "copy that change to the other branch".
     
  6. Novack

    Novack

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    Oct 28, 2009
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    Thank you Alex.
    That sentence was rethoric, the rest of the post elaborates what I was asking, and I think you got it.

    So, from your post, what I get is "you want to, but only works sometimes, when is possible".

    I guess the only certainty we can get is by comparing release notes from Patch Releases and Beta Releases, on any specific issue. Would be nice if on the issue tracker could be details on this, Ie: "Fix included on patch x, Fix Included on beta x", although I have noted that the issue tracker is not always used either.

    Anyway, thanks.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2016
  7. Alex-Lian

    Alex-Lian

    Guest

    I think that's an over simplification, but I guess close enough.

    Thanks for the thoughts. We're looking at how to improve what the issuetracker shows, but that'll take us some time.
     
    Novack likes this.