Convert EOL banches into tags?

[bryevdv]

Came across this document for CPython process:

https://peps.python.org/pep-0101/#moving-to-end-of-life

TLDR, after five years, old branches are tagged and then the branch is deleted. Among other things, this avoids the GH branch list UI from growing indefinitely. Since we only ever intend to make point releases against the immediately preceeding minor release, I think we could have a conservative look back that keeps a branch or two before that, and converts anything earlier to a tag.

Interested in any thoughts, if there is interest, I'd write this up as a BEP (or perhaps it could be an addition to BEP-6)

cc @bokeh/dev

[bryevdv]

For reference, the current UI branch list looks like this:

My concrete proposal is:

• keep two previous released branches, and any number of current/future dev branches (usually this is just one, but may occasionally be more)
• upon retiring, tag with branch-x.y last commit

Under this scheme we would keep:

• branch-3.4
• branch-3.3
• branch-3.2

and tag everything older.

[bryevdv]

@bokeh/core here is my concrete proposed edit to BEP-6:

Retiring branches

In order to keep the number of active branches open at any one time to a reasonable level, and to clearly signal that old branches are permanently closed to future changes, old development branches will be periodically deleted, and replaced with a placeholder commit. Specifically, the following branches shall be kept at any point in time:

• at most two base branches from the two most recent previous release levels
• any number of current/future base branches (usually this is just one, but may occasionally be more)

Upon retiring, the last commit of a branch shall be tagged with branch-x.y -- final commit.

I would also change the definition for "base branch" from "A permanent branch" to a "A long-running branch".

@bokeh/core please signal a vote here with 👍 / 👎 or respond with a any concerns or suggestions. Once this is approved I will make the edit to the BEP Wiki page and implement the change.

[bryevdv]

Recording the vote:

[bryevdv]

@bokeh/core I had to make one small edit to make it clear that the latest previous release level must be kept:

• the base branch from the most recent previous release level
• optionally, the base branch from the next most recent previous release level
• any number of current/future base branches (usually this is just one, but may occasionally be more)

I consider this a trivial clarification but let me know of any concerns.

I have implemented this this for all branches previous to branch-3.2