From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 27 02:18:51 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DD6C6106564A; Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:18:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rmacklem@uoguelph.ca) Received: from esa-annu.mail.uoguelph.ca (esa-annu.mail.uoguelph.ca [131.104.91.36]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 82FC28FC12; Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:18:51 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: Ap4EAKcIIk+DaFvO/2dsb2JhbABChQuqTYFyAQEFI0sLGxgCAg0ZAlkGE641kWCBL4dqAQUDHAQBCwEIAQYEAwMEEBIDgmYFAwMBAgcDFQEFCwcCAYEJDAYJgh6BFgSIP4xgkm8 X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.71,577,1320642000"; d="scan'208";a="153920149" Received: from erie.cs.uoguelph.ca (HELO zcs3.mail.uoguelph.ca) ([131.104.91.206]) by esa-annu-pri.mail.uoguelph.ca with ESMTP; 26 Jan 2012 21:18:47 -0500 Received: from zcs3.mail.uoguelph.ca (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by zcs3.mail.uoguelph.ca (Postfix) with ESMTP id A0EB1B3F59; Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:18:47 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:18:47 -0500 (EST) From: Rick Macklem To: Mark Blackman Message-ID: <937372083.236461.1327630727642.JavaMail.root@erie.cs.uoguelph.ca> In-Reply-To: <6D5F6ECE-5966-4849-AFDC-7F385E2CE906@exonetric.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Originating-IP: [172.17.91.202] X-Mailer: Zimbra 6.0.10_GA_2692 (ZimbraWebClient - FF3.0 (Win)/6.0.10_GA_2692) Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Adrian Chadd , Mark Saad Subject: Re: FreeBSD has serious problems with focus, longevity, and lifecycle X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:18:51 -0000 Mark Blackman wrote: > On 26 Jan 2012, at 14:37, John Baldwin wrote: > > > On Thursday, January 19, 2012 4:33:40 pm Adrian Chadd wrote: > >> On 19 January 2012 09:47, Mark Saad wrote: > >>> > >>> > >>> What could I do to help make 7.5-RELEASE a reality ? > >>> > >> > >> Put your hand up and volunteer to run the 7.5-RELEASE release > >> cycle. > > > > That's not actually true or really fair. There has to be some buy-in > > from the > > project to do an official release; it is not something that a single > > person > > can do off in a corner and then have the Project bless the bits as > > an official > > release. > > And raises the interesting question for an outsider of > > a) who is "the project" in this case > and > b) what does it take for a release to be a release? > > Wasn't there a freebsd-releng (or similar) mailing list ages ago? > I am going to avoid the above question, since I don't know the answer and I believe other(s) have already answered it. However, I will throw out the following comment: I can't seem to find the post, but someone suggested a release mechanism where stable/N would simply be branched when it appeared to be in good shape. Although I have no idea if this is practical for all releases, it seems that it might be a "low overhead" approach for releases off old stable branches like stable/7 currently is? (ie. Since there aren't a lot of commits happening to stable/7, just branch it. You could maybe give a one/two week warning email about when this will happen. I don't think it would cause a "flurry of commits" like happens when code slush/freeze approaches for a new .0 one.) Just a thought, rick