Add the new maint policy to perlpolicy.pod

1 files changed, 73 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perlpolicy.pod b/pod/perlpolicy.pod
index 8ce6a4b7ec..380a177d5e 100644
--- a/pod/perlpolicy.pod
+++ b/pod/perlpolicy.pod
@@ -9,6 +9,79 @@ policies about how the Perl 5 Porters collectively develop and maintain
 the Perl core.
 
 
+=head1 MAINTENANCE BRANCHES
+
+=over
+
+=item *
+
+New releases of maint should contain as few changes as possible.
+If there is any question about whether a given patch might merit
+inclusion in a maint release, then it almost certainly should not
+be included.
+
+=item *
+
+Portability fixes, such as changes to Configure and the files in
+hints/ are acceptable. Ports of Perl to a new platform, architecture
+or OS release that involve changes to the implementation are NOT
+acceptable.
+
+=item *
+
+Documentation updates are acceptable.
+
+=item *
+
+Patches that add new warnings or errors or deprecate features
+are not acceptable.
+
+=item *
+
+Patches that fix crashing bugs that do not otherwise change Perl's
+functionality or negatively impact performance are acceptable.  
+
+=item *
+
+Patches that fix CVEs or security issues are acceptable, but should
+be run through the perl5-security-report@perl.org mailing list
+rather than applied directly.
+
+=item *
+
+Updates to dual-life modules should consist of minimal patches to 
+fix crashing or security issues (as above).
+
+=item *
+
+New versions of dual-life modules should NOT be imported into maint.
+Those belong in the next stable series.
+
+=item *
+
+Patches that add or remove features are not acceptable.
+
+=item *
+
+Patches that break binary compatibility are not acceptable.  (Please
+talk to a pumpking.)
+
+=back
+
+
+=head2 Getting changes into a maint branch
+
+Historically, only the pumpking cherry-picked changes from bleadperl
+into maintperl.  This has...scaling problems.  At the same time,
+maintenance branches of stable versions of Perl need to be treated with
+great care. To that end, we're going to try out a new process for
+maint-5.12.
+
+Any committer may cherry-pick any commit from blead to maint-5.12 if
+they send mail to perl5-porters announcing their intent to cherry-pick
+a specific commit along with a rationale for doing so and at least two 
+other committers respond to the list giving their assent. (This policy
+applies to current and former pumpkings, as well as other committers.)
 
 =head1 CONTRIBUTED MODULES