Looking at https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/milestones, it looks like we're pretty close to 2.18.0 being ready. • https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/pull/19999 is definitely required, but jammed up by CI (stuck building ARM mac wheels) • There's no other critical fixes (e.g. regressions) pending • The three bugs affecting 2.17.x (https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/milestone/58) that would be nice if they were fixed... but fixes don't seem close, and they're not new regressions, i.e. if 2.17.0 has a problem, it's not so bad to release 2.18.0 with the same problem (not as bad as releasing a regression) Thus, I propose: 1. getting the "what's new" release notes in ASAP (I'll need CI help) 2. doing a 2.18.0rc5 release immediately once they're in 3. encouraging testing 4. release 2.18.0 a few days/week later (hopefully, if no blocking bugs) Thoughts?

Had a look at the list, I have a potential fix for the

tar

issue. However, with the abysmal repro rate I'm not sure if it'd be worth it as a last second thing. Assuming the only reason that can actually occur is due to hardlink counters, we can just disable the warning. However, I think it could also occur if the file is flushed to disk after the sandbox is started, so we have a sequence of 1) Sandbox A runs, producing Large Artifact 2) Pants captures large artifact, and writes to cache as LA' 3) Sandbox B starts running, using a hardlink to LA' 4) The kernel flushes LA' to disk 5) Tar blows up because ctime changed

That sounds good to me. I'm hopeful with the waaay easier new release process (kudos, Josh), we can get patch releases out really quick, e.g. if/when we're comfortable with that fix, we could potentially merge it, immediately do a 2.18.1rc, validate it and then turn that into 2.18.1 quickly.

--warning=no-changed-file

(That may be a GNU tar-only option, and not available in, for instance, macOS's default tar. Just to make life "easy".)

Oh yeah definitely is.

I’m on board with releasing what we have and following up with patch releases as long as it’s no major critical issues/regressions. Prefer a steady release train over perfect releases (“don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough” comes to mind 😉 )

Sounds good to me!

Okay, cool: we're close! I snuck https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/pull/20144 in too, and the cherry-pick https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/pull/20147 is just waiting for CI.

Absolutely ok. 👍

The 2.18.0rc5 release is being cut now, and we're hoping it'll be the last RC before 2.18.0 (pending testing). Please be stricter about what gets cherry picked to

2.18.x

: important bug fixes only. Feel free to ask/double check before making a decision!