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Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:45:01 -0800
From: David Kirchner <dpk@dpk.net>
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To: Steve Bertrand <iaccounts@ibctech.ca>
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References: <200511170004.31463.list-freebsd-2004@morbius.sent.com>
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Cc: FreeBSD Questions <questions@freebsd.org>,
	RW <list-freebsd-2004@morbius.sent.com>
Subject: Re: Release engineering confusion
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On 11/16/05, Steve Bertrand <iaccounts@ibctech.ca> wrote:
> Thank you. However, that entire page out of the handbook pretty much
> clarifies that a production environment should *not* track either STABLE
> or CURRENT.
>
> So I'm assuming I'm best off with RELENG_6_0 etc, etc? Does anyone here
> actually run STABLE or CURRENT in a production environment? I've
> personally had the most luck with RELENG_4 which is still my main box,
> but now my curiosity has got the best of me.
>
> Steve

Ultimately it depends on how much downtime and difficulty you're
willing to endure, just in case the -STABLE branch ends up not working
for your servers for some particular reason. We use -RELEASE almost
exclusively (we have one -STABLE machine, because we needed a newer
version of a kernel driver) as we manage hundreds of servers, and
there's no one -STABLE release (to properly describe the -STABLE
version you're using you have to have the date and time of the cvsup,
as opposed to -RELEASE versions being like 5.4-RELEASE-p9). It's
easier, and thus more reliable, for us to have stable(heh) version
strings.

If you're just working with a handful of servers, -STABLE would
probably be fine, as long as you have backups and know how to revert
to previous versions when it becomes necessary.