| --- |
| title: "Gerrit ESC Meeting Minutes" |
| tags: esc |
| keywords: esc minutes |
| permalink: 2025-02-26-esc-minutes.html |
| summary: "Minutes from the ESC meeting held on February 26, 2025" |
| hide_sidebar: true |
| hide_navtoggle: true |
| toc: true |
| --- |
| |
| # Engineering Steering Committee Meetings, February 26, 2025 |
| |
| **Participants**: Edwin Kempin [EK], Luca Milanesio [LM], Saลกa Zivkov [SZ], Matthias Sohn [MS] |
| |
| **Next meeting**: March 26, 2025 |
| |
| ## Executive Summary |
| |
| The meeting covered Google AI's use for meeting minutes ([LM] |
| reported 80% time savings but noted accuracy issues), Gerrit's upgrade to |
| JGit master and servlet upgrade challenges ([SZ] approved Thomas's |
| [password rotation design document](https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/c/homepage/+/455521), |
| postponing the dynamic submittable |
| conditions document), and JGit's Servlet 4 downgrade ([MS] |
| successfully downported, needing master branch verification; Jetty 12 |
| upgrade confirmed with [EK], requiring executive sponsorship for |
| Servlet API upgrade). |
| |
| [SZ] also discussed Java 21 adoption, including |
| virtual threads and record usage, suggesting similar Gerrit core updates. |
| |
| ## Gemini AI for Meeting Minutes |
| |
| [LM] reported that using Gemini AI for meeting minutes saved at |
| least 80% of their time, although they needed to double-check for accuracy |
| in assigning action items. |
| |
| They also experimented with using AI for release |
| notes but found that the results contained hallucinations and required more |
| time to fix than writing them manually. [LM] prefers writing |
| release notes as a learning exercise and to prepare presentations, rather |
| than for efficiency alone. |
| |
| ## Gerrit Upgrade and Design Documents |
| |
| The meeting primarily focused on upgrading Gerrit to the latest JGit master, |
| addressing servlet upgrade challenges. |
| |
| [SZ] approved Thomas's design document for rotating passwords, as they were |
| happy with its content and it was well-received. |
| |
| A document summarizing feature requests for dynamic submittable conditions |
| lacked conclusions and was postponed until a proper design document is available; |
| [SZ] will likely review it in the coming months, as they are already working |
| on removing Prolog code. |
| |
| [SZ] also announced a Git-based storage backend for message to the existing |
| [message-of-the-day plugin](https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/c/plugins/messageoftheday/+/454563) |
| which could be useful for multi-site deployment. |
| |
| ## JGit Update and Servlet Upgrade |
| |
| [MS] presented their work on downgrading to Servlet 4 in JGit. They |
| created a new branch [servlet-4](https://github.com/eclipse-jgit/jgit/tree/refs/heads/servlet-4) |
| based on the master branch and successfully |
| downported it. The update involved addressing deprecated methods and |
| adapting to API changes in several interfaces and plugins. [LM] |
| noted that some changes needed verification after merging with the master |
| branch. |
| |
| [MS] discussed upgrading Jetty to version 12 with [EK], who |
| confirmed it wouldn't be a problem for Google. [MS] successfully |
| solved a problem in the test class used for testing the HTTP protocol by |
| reverting the Servlet 6 update and noted that Jetty 12 offers performance |
| improvements and allows for the optional use of Servlet APIs. |
| |
| > **NOTE**: The main issue with old Jetty versions 9.x,10.x,11.x is that |
| > they [are all EOL](https://endoflife.date/eclipse-jetty). |
| |
| The Google Team agreed that upgrading the Servlet API is a significant undertaking |
| that needs to be funded and prioritized; it is unlikely to happen without |
| executive sponsorship. |
| |
| ## Java 21 and Virtual Threads |
| |
| [SZ] mentioned that they are now using Java 21 and replaced AutoValue |
| with records in the message of the day plugin. They suggested considering a |
| similar approach for Gerrit core, potentially using a migration tool first. |
| |
| See here below the corresponding WIP changes: |
| |
| - Gerrit core: |
| [Change 457003](https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/c/gerrit/+/457003) |
| [Change 457045](https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/c/gerrit/+/457045) |
| |
| - Gerrit plugins: |
| [Change 457141](https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/c/plugins/delete-project/+/457141) |
| [Change 457142](https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/c/plugins/replication/+/457142) |
| [Change 457046](https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/c/plugins/reviewnotes/+/457046) |
| |
| |
| [SZ] also introduced the concept of virtual threads in Java 21, |
| highlighting the simplification they offer to concurrent programming and |
| their potential application within Gerrit. |
| |
| [MS] mentioned the need to update to a servlet container that supports |
| virtual threads before implementing them. |
