[ANN] Call to testers (OCaml 4.11.0, release candidate)

Ecosystem
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Dear OCaml users,

The release of OCaml version 4.11.0 is imminent. We have created a release candidate that you can test.
For users of the beta releases, this release candidate is exactly the same as the last beta release except for a minor fix for the #show directive in the toplevel.

The compiler can be installed as an OPAM switch with the following commands:

$ opam update
$ opam switch create 4.11.0+rc2 --repositories=default,beta=git://github.com/ocaml/ocaml-beta-repository.git

— :sparkles: The opam ecosystem —

The opam ecosystem is in good shape for this release candidate.
For maximum compatibility, you can use the following opam-alpha-repository:

$ opam repo add alpha https://github.com/kit-ty-kate/opam-alpha-repository.git

during your tests. This repository integrate not-yet-upstreamed or unreleased fixes to various packages.
With this repository all except a handful of packages are compatible with this release candidate.

Using opam-alpha-repository:

  • All core tools (see meta issue) – including Merlin :tada: – work, except for ocaml-lsp-server (which is not officially released yet and only relevant for Windows users).

  • All packages except 7 over the 2134 available packages in opam-repository that were compatible with OCaml 4.10 are also compatible with OCaml 4.11.

— :checkered_flag: Call to testers —

Given that the release is very close and the state of the community packages stable enough, we would like to encourage people to give it a try before the release, especially for those on non-x86_64 architectures. I’ve personally been using OCaml 4.11 almost exclusively for the past 3 months and did not really encountered any issues on my x86_64 machine with a fairly regular setup.

Give it a try! Happy testing! :milky_way:

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And a huge thank you to @kit-ty-kate who has done an extraordinary amount of behind-the-scenes work for this release. This is the first time we’re experimenting with the idea of an “OCaml Readiness Team” of the maintainers of the various core tools, and she has superbly coordinated those projects along with the wider opam-repository (along with a large amount of direct compatibility fixing).

Due to this effort, for the first time since we started disaggregating tools out of the core OCaml distribution starting about 8 years ago, the forthcoming releases of OCaml should come with tooling that is ready for that release from day 1. Props to all the maintainers for your hard work – I’ll be talking about how this is working more in the forthcoming OCaml Workshop in a few weeks.

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