Releases/Thunderbird 3.1rc2/Post Mortem

Initial notes for update generation and release

• Release snippets didn't get generated automatically for rc2
  • We'd created update configuration files before we got to update generation
    • Probably should have been created just after the first alpha.
    • Action: How do we track this?
  • useBetaChannel had already been set to "1", however releasetest channel wasn't specified in moz192-thunderbird-branch-patcher2.cfg
    • Result Action: Now added these to steps to the Thunderbird/Release_Driving/Final_Release_Checklist
    • Action: Always use automation to produce updates and verify results?

• Partial Beta snippets were broken on Windows.
  • This was only found after pushing out updates on the beta channel. Symptoms:
    • Partial update got downloaded, app restarted, but update wasn't fully applied.
    • Update system then started downloading the complete update.
  • It was found that force nssdbm3.chk was missing from the moz192-thunderbird-branch-patcher2.cfg file.
  • That was added, snippets regenerated.
  • Action: We need to find a way of remembering to check differences between FF & TB configs in future.
  • Unsure why this wasn't affected in any of the previous alpha / betas, or why we didn't detect it until after we pushed it out to beta.

• Regenerated snippets had wrong SHA512 signatures
  • Possibly due to copying the wrong data.
  • Forgot that ftp.mozilla.org/.../nightly wasn't mirrored, and hence the problem was real.
  • Thunderbird's update mechanism appeared broken - partial was downloaded, and didn't verify, complete update was then downloaded, but although got to 100%, it didn't actually finish.
    • Result Action: bug 571220.
  • Pulled updates by removing the files from ftp.
  • Subsequently pulled all updates from aus, then re-landed everything and got the correct signatures.