JDK 8 Updates Ground Rules

Rule 0

This process is subject to change. Changes MUST be approved by Project Lead and Technical Lead. Changes considering development in OpenJDK MUST be publicly discussed on the jdk8u-dev mailing list prior to approval to allow for public feedback. The Project Lead is Andrew Haley

The process we use is

Rule 1

All changes that are not specific to JDK 8 Update MUST go into the JDK Project first. As a special exception, a change MAY go into JDK 8 Update if it is at the same time also proposed for inclusion into the JDK Project.

Rule 2

jdk8u/jdk8u-dev, the always open mainline JDK 8 Update forest, is maintained by the Project Lead. Exceptions to that are e.g. specific release repositories, where the Project Lead MAY delegate that authority.

Rule 3

Changes submitted for a JDK 8 Update forest MUST go through code review, and MUST be approved by the maintainer for that forest. The maintainer of a forest MAY delegate that authority, allowing for approvals to happen in a more finely granular fashion - per repository, for example.

If the change is an enhancement, then a separate enhancement backport request MUST be approved by the maintainer for that forest prior to the change being submitted for code review and final maintainer approval.

Rule 4

Maintainer approvals for public JDK 8 Update forests MUST take place on the jdk8u-dev@openjdk.java.net mailing list. Code reviews SHOULD take place on that list - if they take place somewhere else, as part of the approval request a URL for the public code review MUST be provided.

Rule 5

A maintainer for a forest MAY pre-approve changes undergoing code review in JDK Project for commit to their forest in JDK 8 Update.

Rule 6

A maintainer for a forest MAY request additional reviews for changes to be performed before it is approved for their forest.

Rule 7

A maintainer for a forest SHOULD coordinate with the appropriate stakeholders to determine whether changes are appropriate for their forest.

Rule 8

For changes submitted for inclusion into a public JDK 8 Update forest, the corresponding bug tracker entry SHOULD be publicly visible.

Rule 9

If the corresponding bug tracker entry is not publicly visible for a change submitted for inclusion into a public JDK 8 Update forest, the submitter SHOULD provide guidance for code review.