---
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], Saša 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.