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Improve Contributing docs and set a release schedule#37109

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lunny merged 15 commits into
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bircni:improve_contrib
Apr 12, 2026
Merged

Improve Contributing docs and set a release schedule#37109
lunny merged 15 commits into
go-gitea:mainfrom
bircni:improve_contrib

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@bircni bircni commented Apr 4, 2026 •
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This PR updates CONTRIBUTING.md for clarity (code review, maintainers, PR workflow)

Suggestion

  • majors about every three months, with a more predictable cadence from v1.26 onward.
  • target dates such as v1.26.0 (April 2026), v1.27.0 (June 2026), v1.28.0 (September 2026), v1.29.0 (December 2026).
  • announce feature freeze two weeks before each release.

Other doc changes

  • Reviewing PRs: separate guidance for reviewers vs authors; small edits to maintaining PRs, merge queue, commit messages, co-authors.
  • Maintainers: clearer subsections; links to GitHub Docs for 2FA / GPG.
  • Split the Contributing.md into more useful markdown files

@GiteaBot GiteaBot added the lgtm/need 2 This PR needs two approvals by maintainers to be considered for merging. label Apr 4, 2026
@bircni bircni changed the title Improve contrib Improve Contributing docs and set a release schedule Apr 4, 2026
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bircni commented Apr 4, 2026

Replaces #36686

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wxiaoguang commented Apr 5, 2026

By the way, I was thinking about splitting the CONTRIBUTING.md into different files.

There are too many contents mixed together in CONTRIBUTING.md, many of them are for maintainers only, not needed by contributors.

In my mind, some files:

  1. CONTRIBUTING.md: only contains the useful information for new contributors, and link to other files
  2. docs/guideline-frontend.md
  3. docs/guideline-backend.md
  4. docs/community-governance.md
  5. docs/release-management.md

Otherwise, the all-in-one file which has more than thousand of lines (wrapping....) is difficult to read, and the useful information can be easily ignored (for example: don't rebase+force-push)

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bircni commented Apr 5, 2026

By the way, I was thinking about splitting the CONTRIBUTING.md into different files.
There are too many contents mixed together in CONTRIBUTING.md, many of them are for maintainers only, not needed by contributors.
In my mind, some files:

  1. CONTRIBUTING.md: only contains the useful information for new contributors, and link to other files
  2. docs/guideline-frontend.md
  3. docs/guideline-backend.md
  4. docs/community-governance.md
  5. docs/release-management.md

Otherwise, the all-in-one file which has more than thousand of lines (wrapping....) is difficult to read, and the useful information can be easily ignored (for example: don't rebase+force-push)

Done

@GiteaBot GiteaBot added lgtm/need 1 This PR needs approval from one additional maintainer to be merged. and removed lgtm/need 2 This PR needs two approvals by maintainers to be considered for merging. labels Apr 5, 2026
@bircni bircni requested review from lafriks and wxiaoguang April 5, 2026 17:30
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silverwind commented Apr 7, 2026

We can do a slightly less-than-perfect 1.26.0 now, bug fixes will happen regardless and the more often we release, the easier they are to backport because branches diverge over time.

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silverwind commented Apr 9, 2026 •
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Maybe make it a bit less verbose overall, it seems quite big.

The plan is good, I hope it will be followed. We should also look into automating the release process as much as possible. Maybe with a release.sh script or similar. Currently there seem to be too many manual steps.

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bircni commented Apr 9, 2026

All this was nearly 100% copied into other files not fully reviewed again
Will recheck that all

@bircni bircni requested review from a team and a1012112796 April 10, 2026 16:36
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bircni commented Apr 10, 2026 •
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@lunny @wxiaoguang @silverwind I added the following:

How is the release handled?

  • The release manager will tag the release candidate (e.g. v1.26.0-rc1) and publish it for testing in the first week of the release month.
  • If there are no major issues, the release manager will check with the other maintainers and then tag the final release (e.g. v1.26.0) in the one or two weeks following the release candidate.

I think it's ready for merge and to apply the new scheduling

@bircni bircni added the backport/v1.26 This PR should be backported to Gitea 1.26 label Apr 10, 2026
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DaanSelen commented Apr 10, 2026

I like the idea!
I do also like the idea of instead of 1.x.x such as 1.26.1 why not do a date based version? 2026.01.patch? Or would that not fix? Its just my two cents.

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TheFox0x7 commented Apr 10, 2026

Ref issue for version numbering: #27574
It's really not in scope of this I feel.

@GiteaBot GiteaBot added lgtm/done This PR has enough approvals to get merged. There are no important open reservations anymore. and removed lgtm/need 1 This PR needs approval from one additional maintainer to be merged. labels Apr 11, 2026
@bircni bircni added the reviewed/wait-merge This pull request is part of the merge queue. It will be merged soon. label Apr 11, 2026
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wxiaoguang commented Apr 12, 2026

  • The release manager will tag the release candidate (e.g. v1.26.0-rc1) and publish it for testing in the first week of the release month.

Usually no rc1 if rc0 is stable enough. It can be flexible and up to the doer. I have no other suggestion for the change (I only prefer to split the large document, for other parts, I can't comment more).

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wxiaoguang commented Apr 12, 2026 •
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why not do a date based version? 2026.01.patch? Or would that not fix? Its just my two cents.

No body (owner & TOC & company) cares:

bircni
bircni commented Apr 12, 2026
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bircni and others added 2 commits April 12, 2026 13:39
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bircni commented Apr 12, 2026

@go-gitea/mergers can we merge?

@lunny lunny merged commit 47fdf3e into go-gitea:main Apr 12, 2026
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@GiteaBot GiteaBot added this to the 1.27.0 milestone Apr 12, 2026
@GiteaBot GiteaBot removed the reviewed/wait-merge This pull request is part of the merge queue. It will be merged soon. label Apr 12, 2026
@bircni bircni deleted the improve_contrib branch April 12, 2026 18:47
GiteaBot pushed a commit to GiteaBot/gitea that referenced this pull request Apr 13, 2026
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Improve Contributing docs and set a release schedule (go-gitea#37109)
27020d7 
This PR updates `CONTRIBUTING.md` for clarity (code review, maintainers,
PR workflow)

## Suggestion

- majors about every **three months**, with a more predictable cadence
from **v1.26** onward.
- target dates such as **v1.26.0** (April 2026), **v1.27.0** (June
2026), **v1.28.0** (September 2026), **v1.29.0** (December 2026).
- announce feature freeze **two weeks** before each release.

## Other doc changes

- Reviewing PRs: separate guidance for reviewers vs authors; small edits
to maintaining PRs, merge queue, commit messages, co-authors.
- Maintainers: clearer subsections; links to GitHub Docs for 2FA / GPG.
- Split the Contributing.md into more useful markdown files

---------

Signed-off-by: Nicolas <bircni@icloud.com>
@GiteaBot GiteaBot mentioned this pull request Apr 13, 2026
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@GiteaBot GiteaBot added the backport/done All backports for this PR have been created label Apr 13, 2026
zjjhot added a commit to zjjhot/gitea that referenced this pull request Apr 14, 2026
@zjjhot
Merge branch 'main' into mainzjj
4f68a03 
* main:
  Add comment for the design of "user activity time" (go-gitea#37195)
  fix(api): handle missing base branch in PR commits API (go-gitea#37193)
  Refactor htmx and fetch-action related code (go-gitea#37186)
  Fix encoding for Matrix Webhooks (go-gitea#37190)
  Always show owner/repo name in compare page dropdowns (go-gitea#37172)
  fix(api): handle fork-only commits in compare API (go-gitea#37185)
  Improve Contributing docs and set a release schedule (go-gitea#37109)
  Update Nix flake (go-gitea#37183)
  Remove outdated RunUser logic (go-gitea#37180)
  Refactor flash message and remove SanitizeHTML template func (go-gitea#37179)
  Indicate form field readonly via background (go-gitea#37175)
  Remove dead CSS rules (go-gitea#37173)
  Fix flaky `TestCatFileBatch/QueryTerminated` test (go-gitea#37159)
  Implement logout redirection for reverse proxy auth setups (go-gitea#36085)
  Add missing `//nolint:depguard` (go-gitea#37162)
@bircni bircni mentioned this pull request Apr 17, 2026
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backport/done All backports for this PR have been created backport/v1.26 This PR should be backported to Gitea 1.26 lgtm/done This PR has enough approvals to get merged. There are no important open reservations anymore.

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