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Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:57:04 -0700
From: Paul Allen <nospam@ugcs.caltech.edu>
To: Doug Barton <dougb@freebsd.org>
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Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: release cycle
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>From Doug Barton <dougb@freebsd.org>, Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 01:55:01PM -0700:
> Chris wrote:
> 
> > So my question remains when we have 7.0 and 6.3 both STABLE releases
> > will the ports tree not be supported in 6.3 a just released version of
> > FreeBSD?
> You are focusing on released version numbers when you ask about ports
> support, and we generally focus on release branches. See
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvs-tags.html
> for more information about that. We will be supporting ports for
> RELENG_5 and _6, and RELENG_7 after it's created from what is now HEAD.
In particular, if a port breaks on 6.1 but works on 6.2, it is likely
that a POLA violation is afoot somewhere.  This doesn't mean that the
issue will be fixed but instead that something of this sort is unlikely.
Unlike in other operating systems, FreeBSD is incredibly consistent between
minor version numbers.  Usually this means things just work.

e.g., throughout the life of 4.x I rarely encountered problems because of
mixing PORTS and an older release of 4.x.  And by rarely I mean I don't
remember any examples of it happening.