Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 15:38:41 +1000 (EST) From: Julian Jenkins <julianj@vast.unsw.edu.au> To: FreeBSD Stable Users <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: The -stable problem: my view Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960612151120.22532A-100000@spindle> In-Reply-To: <199606080419.WAA02553@rocky.sri.MT.net>
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On Fri, 7 Jun 1996, Nate Williams wrote: > > We need a new model. One that keeps the quality high and one > > that doesn't prevent me from doing new development. > > Do you have any suggestions? Would creating a new 'stable' tree today > be even remotely acceptable? I have a suggestion for a system that could solve at least part of the problems. Every 6 months or so, at a time when -current is fairly stable, a new branch should be created that is destined to become the next release. After a period of bugfixes, etc (6 months?) this becomes the next release. At the time that this branch is now declared the stable branch and no changes other than bugfixes are welcome in that tree. The old stable branch can be discarded at this time. At this point the core team and anybody else can disown it and let those who use it perform any neccesacary managment. There may be a market for the old branch on CD at its final state for those who are excessively(sp?) paranoid or feel that the new stable is not yet as good as the last. The time of the new release is probably also a good time for a new branch to be created for the next release and the whole process started over. All people making changes to the release and stable branches should be encoraged to determine if it is appropriate to make them to the current branch as well. Rules for committing into the release and stable branches should be devised. These would probable be along the lines of only bugfixes are accepted into stable (people developing new features should be putting them in current and not wasting their time on stable), and features may be accepted into the release branch only if there is a very good reason for doing so. This scheme has the advantage that there is always a branch that is more stable than the last release. However this requires three branches which may make it impractical. Julian kaveman@magna.com.au
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