This document describes the policy for updating the ubuntu-core-launcher package in a stable supported distro, including LTS.

ubuntu-core-launcher is the tool to launch ubuntu core applications. This package needs to be updated to support new features in snapd, which already has an [[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SnapdUpdates|exception to release new versions into the stable distro]].It needs to be updated as soon as new uses or potential issues are found, in order to keep improving our security and confinement story. Therefore in addition to critical bug fixes, new features and small improvements are allowed in an ubuntu-core-launcher update '''as long as the conditions outlined below are met'''.

== QA Process ==

This is the mandatory QA process that the proposed packages have to pass. The following requirements must be met:

  * each change must be reviewed and approved by at least one member of the [[https://github.com/orgs/ubuntu-core/people|ubuntu-core github team]] and one member of the [[https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-security|ubuntu security team]] before landing into trunk.
  * each change must include a test.
  * each change affecting the users of snapd must include a test on that project.
  * all the automated tests must pass in all the supported architectures. They are executed for one arch before the change is merged into trunk, and for all the architectures during the build of the deb package that will go into proposed.
  * all the changes must have a bug reported in launchpad following the [[StableReleaseUpdates#SRU_Bug_Template|SRU bug template]], with a link to the merge proposal that fixes them. These bugs must be marked as "Fix Committed" at the project level once that proposal is merged into trunk.

=== Packaging QA ===
The resulting package, with all the changes in place, must undergo and pass the following additional QA procedures:

  * upgrade test from previous version of the package. This test must be performed with:
    * apt install/upgrade.
  * test interaction with the snapd installed in the system:
    * execute the snapd autopkgtests.

The above tests can be performed by any QA engineer.

This is a package new in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Once we have another stable Ubuntu version released this should be added to the above process:

  * upgrade test from previous distribution to the current one. If the current distribution is an LTS one, the upgrade path from the previous LTS distro must also be exercised.

== Requesting the SRU ==
The SRU should be requested as usual ([[StableReleaseUpdates]]) with the additional note about having the above steps being completed.