From owner-freebsd-stable Sat Oct 10 09:28:12 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA24398 for freebsd-stable-outgoing; Sat, 10 Oct 1998 09:28:12 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from shrimp.dataplex.net (shrimp.dataplex.net [208.2.87.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA24387 for ; Sat, 10 Oct 1998 09:28:06 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rkw@Dataplex.NET) Received: from [208.2.87.5] (user5.dataplex.net [208.2.87.5]) by shrimp.dataplex.net (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id LAA03821; Sat, 10 Oct 1998 11:46:50 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from rkw@dataplex.net) X-Sender: rkw@mail.dataplex.net Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <199810091845.UAA12915@gratis.grondar.za> References: Your message of " Fri, 09 Oct 1998 06:52:28 EST." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 11:23:26 -0500 To: Mark Murray From: Richard Wackerbarth Subject: Re: Future of -stable? Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At 1:45 PM -0500 10/9/98, Mark Murray wrote: >Richard Wackerbarth wrote: >> I will again renew my recommendation that we drop "-Stable" as a "real" name >> and instead make it simply an alias to the most recent branch that has been >> so Christened. The "real" names would be 2.2, 3.0, etc. > >Huh? How will that change reality? The last "STABLE" was on the 2.1.N >branch, and it has already been clearly stated that when 2.2.M is >no longer supported 3.0.J will be "STABLE". I'm not concerned about the CVS tag, but the other things that relate to those tags. We still use "-stable" for mailing lists, cvsup, etc. and, at the moment, the supposedly "beta 3.0" doesn't even have its own RELENG_3_0 tag. My concern is that there are going be transitions when 3.0 is neither "stable" nor "current", but somewhere in between. The poor end-user should not be required to jump through hoops to track the transitions. If you are presently tracking the "HEAD" branch, you should be able to switch, at your leisure, to an alternate "3.0" designation which, presently, delivers exactly the same information. At some point in the future, the paths will diverge. Those who choose to remain with the bleeding edge development will go their merry way and the more conservative users will follow the 3.0 branch as it matures. Think of "tracking" as a train. With the current scheme, a user will either be dumped at the end of the line or find himself heading toward the wrong destination simply because he didn't change trains at the proper point. However, if we administer it appropriately, when a the new user gets on board, he can grab any available seat. Then, while the train is moving, he can move to the car which is going to his desired destination. He doesn't have to wake up in the middle of the night to change trains. Richard Wackerbarth To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message