Re: Stable tag will be slipped Sunday and release engineering will begin Monday

[Max Okumoto <okumoto@xxxxxxxx>]

Matthew Dillon wrote:
> :Okay, I am proud to claim the role of the least educated and the most amateurish
> :of all DFly groupies, so I will ask the painfully stupid questions :o)
> :
> :I've been following the long and confusing thread about what the various tags
> :should be named (and why) and I am hereby declaring my total confusion.
> :
> :I've been following FreeBSD-CURRENT for about ten years, and yet I still don't
> :understand the meaning of their tag names -- so, should I be surprised that I
> :don't understand the DFly names either?
> :...
>
>     Basically it comes down to the problem of identifying what kernel and 
>     world someone is running.   In FreeBSD's case they run parallel releases
>     of both their 'stable' and 'current' series.  The two major series 
>     (stable and current) have their own CVS branches (current is just on the
>     CVS HEAD).  Each release made within the series also has its own branch.
>     To make things more confusing, the -RELEASE designation only applies to
>     the actual release while the -STABLE designation applies to continued 
>     development on the stable branch.
>
>     DragonFly just has one series.  i.e. no parallel development is occuring.
>     When we release (starting with this upcoming release) we create a branch
>     for the release.   Only bug fixes are allowed to be committed to a
>     release branch... no new features. 
>
>     As of this upcoming release, our tags are going to be named based on
>     the scheme Chris Pressey came up with (the one that got a lot of positive
>     responses on the lists).  We will have three tag names:
>
>     DEVELOPMENT
>
> 	This represents the absolute bleeding edge head of the CVS tree.
> 	When Max commits yet another rearrangement of the Make variable
> 	handling module, or Joerg rearranges the sound drivers, this 
> 	is where it goes :-)
>
>     PREVIEW
>
> 	This is a slip tag (not a branch) that we synchronize with the head
> 	of the tree from time to time (just like I did a few days ago).  It
> 	represents near-bleeding-edge but likely-to-not-blow-up-in-your-face
> 	work.
>
>     RELEASE+subversions
>
> 	This will be a branch tag.  e.g. representing an official release.
> 	So, for example, the upcoming release will be called
> 	DragonFly 1.2.0-RELEASE (the tag name itself will be something more
> 	compressed).
>
> 	Commits made to a release branch will automatically bump a 
> 	subversion, e.g. 1.2.0, 1.2.1, ... 1.2.75.  Again, only bug fixes
> 	would be committed to a release branch.  So someone running a
> 	release who reports a bug might tell us that is is running 1.2.25,
> 	which gives us a darn good idea exactly what the state of his
> 	system is.

One question which was not stated, but should be answered is what will
trigger the creation of a FELEASE?  Did we just feel like it, or is it
because USENIX was comming up :-)

				Max