We cut a release branch for the 1.8.1 release.

Our plan from this point from this point is roughly:

• Phase 1 (until TBD): work on finalizing the release branch
• Phase 2 (after TBD): perform extended integration/stability/performance testing based on Release Candidate builds.

This issue is for tracking cherry-picks to the release branch.

Cherry-Pick Criteria

Phase 1 (until TBD):

Only low-risk changes may be cherry-picked from master:

1. Fixes to regressions against the most recent minor release (e.g. 1.8.1 for 1.8.x release; see topic: regression issue list)
2. Critical fixes for: silent correctness, crashes, deadlocks, (large) memory leaks.
3. Fixes to new features introduced in the most recent minor release (e.g. 1.8.1 for 1.8.x release)
4. Test/CI fixes
5. Documentation improvements
6. Release branch specific changes (e.g. change version identifiers)

Any other change requires special dispensation from the release managers (currently @malfet, @seemethere, @gchanan). If this applies to your change please write "Special Dispensation" in the "Criteria Category:" template below and explain.

Phase 2 (after TBD):

Note that changes here require us to rebuild a Release Candidate and restart extended testing (likely delaying the release). Therefore, the only accepted changes are:

Release-blocking critical fixes for: silent correctness, backwards compatibility, crashes, deadlocks, (large) memory leaks

This will likely require a discussion with the larger release team over VC or Slack.

Cherry-Pick Process

1. Ensure your PR has landed in master. This does not apply for release-branch specific changes (see Phase 1 criteria).
2. Create (but do not land) a PR against the release branch.
3. Make a request below with the following format:

Link to landed master PR (if applicable):
Link to release branch PR:
Criteria Category:`

1. Someone from the release team will reply with approved / denied or ask for more information.
2. If approved, someone from the release team will merge your PR once the tests pass. NOTE: do not land the release branch PR yourself. Our normal tools (ghstack / ghimport, etc.) do not work on the release branch.