Rules about which issues and pull requests should have which milestone

[neteler]

Ok, what's your rule about which issues should have which milestone? I think it's something that can be automated a little. Like all new PRs that target main and don't have an existing milestone yet should be set to the next milestone when created, but don't change it afterwards? Or/and once a PR is merged to main, it should have the current milestone added whatever the milestone it had just before merging, since it is now part of main.

Originally posted by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/issues/3389#issuecomment-1921256143

[neteler]

In my view:

Pull requests (PR):

• each new PRs should have a milestone assigned, unless it is a "draft" PR.
• mostly the newest active milestone (i.e., with release date assigned) will apply.
• in case of a backport: perform the backport, then update the milestone to the next backport release.
• there should be no PR merged without milestone assigned.
• CI changes opened by bots also get the newest active milestone (i.e., with release date assigned) assigned

Issues:

• issues closed by a PR should receive the PR milestone (otherwise it is a pain for the reporter to find out when the fix/enhancement got released).
• there should be no issue closed without milestone assigned.

Does this make sense? It kind of reflects at least what we have (mostly) done in the past many months, but never really documented it.

Suggestions for automation:

• unless a PR is opened in "Draft" mode, the newest active milestone (i.e., with release date assigned) may be automatically applied.
• CI changes opened by bots also get the newest active milestone (i.e., with release date assigned) assigned

[neteler]

See also #3235

See also https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/discussions/3396