Packer 6 week release cadence

[Matthew Hooker]

Hi All,

We're going to make some changes to how we develop packer releases. Currently, the process is pretty arbitrary. We pick a date and try to stuff some tickets into that version. This has worked okay, but we want the process to be more predictable.

Starting with v1.1.0, we'll be making packer releases every 6 weeks. That means that whatever's in master will be released. Any PRs that aren't ready to go will be moved to the next version milestone. An exception is critical bug fixes, in which case we'll make a release as soon as possible.

As always, you can track what we intend to do for the next release in our github milestones: https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/milestones

One thing to note is that with a 6 week release cadence, the milestones are aspirational: we're not going to hold a release because a PR is not ready to go. On the other hand, small fixes will make it into releases more regularly, we can automate the process to reduce manual errors, and you can plan ahead for the next release.

Thanks,

--Matt Hooker