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Date:   Thu, 26 Aug 2021 10:42:04 +0200
From:   Daniel Wagner <dwagner@suse.de>
To:     Pavel Machek <pavel@denx.de>
Cc:     LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        linux-rt-users <linux-rt-users@vger.kernel.org>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
        Carsten Emde <C.Emde@osadl.org>,
        John Kacur <jkacur@redhat.com>,
        Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>,
        Tom Zanussi <tom.zanussi@linux.intel.com>,
        Clark Williams <williams@redhat.com>
Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] 4.4.277-rt224
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Hi Pavel,

On Fri, Aug 20, 2021 at 07:53:01PM +0200, Pavel Machek wrote:
> FYI we are on 2 month cycle for -cip-rt, so we are still fine for a
> while. We had trouble coordinating matching -cip and -rt releases, but
> we decided to adjust -cip cycle to match -rt, so that should be solved.

Oh, my bad. I was aiming for about a release per month but I didn't
really pay attention on my own schedule.

> > BTW, as you certainly are aware, the v4.4 kernel is EOL soon. As I
> > understand the CIP is going to take over the maintenance. So I assume
> > you are going to care of the -rt version as well?
> 
> We are aware, but I don't think we decided what will happen at that
> point (and I can't really speak for the project). We plan to maintain
> -cip and -cip-rt variants till 2027:
> 
> https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/civilinfrastructureplatform/start

Understood.

> Taking over -stable and -stable-rt maintainance, too, is something
> that may make sense (and we probably will be considered), but it is
> likely CIP Technical Steering Committee's (“TSC”) decision.
> 
> https://www.cip-project.org/about/charter
> 
> Actually, your input may be important here. If you (or SuSE or someone
> else) can put some resources into 4.4-rt after February 2022, that
> would be good to know.

Speaking with my upstream hat on: I don't think this likely to
happen. The stable-rt maintainers are happy to get rid of the older
releases as it gets harder over time to keep it alive. That's why we
stop maintaining the -rt variant as soon the matching stable branch hits
EOL.

With my SUSE hat on: we maintain our own version of rt on top of our
SLES kernel. Our v4.4 based kernels (which has significant changes
compared to the upstream stable v4.4 tree) have entered the long time
support period (LTTS). So I fear there is little interest from our side
to keep the upstream v4.4-rt branch alive. Obviously, the CIP project
could talk to our business people :)

Daniel