When a patch release is started and security interrupts us, we don't have a formal process of undoing what was started for that patch release
In version 11.11.2, we lost a few picks because they were originally intended for 11.11.1. However, 11.11.1 shifted it's focus to a security release, and all initial issues were simply renamed. 11.11.1 was then restarted as a security release at that point. This left a branch 11-11-stable-patch-1
existing, however, all work was being done on 11-11-stable-patch-2
. This caused a bit of confusion for which the release manager was thought to have had under control. Unfortunately this was not done correctly, and we lost a few picks that were intended for the next release.
When we start a patch process that gets interrupted, we need a way to abandon it, and roll back all changes that had occurred. This includes removing all release issues, branches, and commits that were picked. This allows for a clean way to start the next release, minimize confusion, and the potential for mistakes.
Evidence of this mistake are captured in the listing of commits between versions here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/28679/diffs?commit_id=7be9e6da42ddcad96a9e166fac9089e4a68ef206 between version 3 of the diff has it, version 4.
Negatively impacted item: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/28612