Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 15:28:58 -0800 (PST) From: dima@unixfreak.org To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: docs/22627: Answering questions about the meaning of -RC and -BETA is repetitive. Message-ID: <200011052328.eA5NSwB13834@lambda.unixfreak.org>
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>Number: 22627
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: Answering questions about the meaning of -RC and -BETA is repetitive.
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: change-request
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Sun Nov 05 15:30:01 PST 2000
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Dima Dorfman
>Release: FreeBSD 4.1-STABLE-20000916 i386
>Organization:
private
>Environment:
Not relevant.
>Description:
When a release is about to be made, -STABLE becomes -RC (or -BETA, in
the case of 4.1.1 -> 4.2). Some people get scared and e-mail
freebsd-questions. Answering them quickly gets repetitive. Since
this happens every time a release is about to be made, I think it
warrants an FAQ entry.
I remember someone saying they were going to write something to this
affect, but I can't seem to find it (`grep -ri -- -rc *` doesn't
return anything relevant).
>How-To-Repeat:
Subscribe to and follow freebsd-questions during a code freeze.
>Fix:
Apply the following to doc/en_US.ISO_8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml.
Index: book.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /st/cvs/FreeBSD/doc/en_US.ISO_8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.119
diff -u -r1.119 book.sgml
--- book.sgml 2000/11/01 18:50:56 1.119
+++ book.sgml 2000/11/05 23:12:50
@@ -6526,6 +6526,39 @@
</answer>
</qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="release-candidate">
+ <para>I tried to update by system to the latest -STABLE, but
+ got -RC or -BETA! What's going on?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>Short answer: it's just a name. RC stands for
+ <quote>Release Candidate</quote>. It signifies that a
+ release is imminent. In FreeBSD, -BETA is synonymous with
+ -RC.</para>
+
+ <para>Long answer: FreeBSD derives its releases from one of
+ two places. Major, dot-zero, releases, such as
+ 3.0-RELEASE and 4.0-RELEASE, are branched from the head of
+ the development stream, commonly referred to as <link
+ linkend="current">-CURRENT</link>. Minor releases, such
+ as 3.1-RELEASE or 4.2-RELEASE, are snapshots of the active
+ <link linkend="stable">-STABLE</link> branch.</para>
+
+ <para>When a release is about to be made, the branch from
+ which it will be derived from has to undergo a certain
+ process. Part of this process is a code freeze. When a
+ code freeze is initiated, the name of the branch is
+ changed to reflect that it's about to become a release.
+ For example, if the branch used to be called 4.0-STABLE,
+ its name will be changed to 4.1-RC to signify that a
+ release is about to be made from it. Once the release,
+ 4.1-RELEASE in this example, has been made, the branch
+ will be renamed to 4.1-STABLE.</para>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
</qandaset>
</chapter>
>Release-Note:
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