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Date:      Tue, 6 Feb 2001 10:17:42 -0500 (EST)
From:      "Christopher W. Aiken" <cwaiken@telerama.com>
To:        Bob Johnson <bob@eng.ufl.edu>
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: How do I tell what release I have?
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSI.4.02.10102061014560.20876-100000@frogger.telerama.com>
In-Reply-To: <3A801107.AE5F6E52@eng.ufl.edu>

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Very nice explanation !!!

Thanks...
-=[cwa]=-



On Tue, 6 Feb 2001, Bob Johnson wrote:

<SNIP>

:)
:)Nice chart.  As clarification I'll add some text:
:)
:)At any given time there are at least two, and sometimes 
:)three, versions of FreeBSD that can be considered up to date.  
:)
:)Ongoing development, experimental stuff, etc. is always 
:)happening, and the version that happens to is called 
:)"CURRENT".  Right now FreeBSD 5.0 is in the CURRENT phase, 
:)so it is called "5.0-CURRENT", or simply "-CURRENT".
:)
:)Once in a while, -CURRENT is declared to be ready for 
:)production use, and the development tree splits off a 
:)new branch by renaming it to -RELEASE.  Thus, at some 
:)point in the past 4.0-CURRENT was renamed 4.0-RELEASE, 
:)and was also renamed 5.0-CURRENT so that there would still 
:)be a CURRENT version to use for new development. For a 
:)brief period, until someone started adding more new stuff 
:)to -CURRENT, 4.0-RELEASE and 5.0-CURRENT were identical 
:)(and so was 4.0-STABLE, but we haven't gotten to that yet).
:)
:)As new ideas are tested in CURRENT and proved to be "good", 
:)they are ported back to the production version, i.e. the 
:)RELEASE.  The RELEASE, then, is also always changing, and 
:)to distinguish the exact configuration at the time the 
:)RELEASE was created from subsequent versions that have 
:)had these changes added, the changed version is called 
:)STABLE.  Thus, the most recent production release of 
:)FreeBSD was called 4.2-RELEASE, but if you include the 
:)changes that have been made since it was released, you 
:)have 4.2-STABLE.  Like CURRENT, a complete specification of 
:)a STABLE version must include the date and time it was built 
:)because it changes every day as more changes are made.
:)
:)Every once in a while (roughly three times a year), the 
:)STABLE version is frozen as a RELEASE and distributed 
:)on CDs (and as downloadable ISO CD images).  This is where 
:)minor version numbers come from.  Thus, although 4.0-RELEASE 
:)was created by freezing 4.0-CURRENT, 4.1-RELEASE and 
:)4.2-RELEASE were created by freezing 4.x-STABLE.
:)
:)Finally, for some time after a new production release 
:)is created (i.e. a new major version number), the old one 
:)will continue to receive bug fixes, particularly for 
:)security-related problems.  Thus, the old 3.5-STABLE is 
:)still rarely updated with security patches, but probably 
:)won't be for much longer.  
:)
:)To summarize: new development happens in -CURRENT.  Right 
:)now that's 5.0-CURRENT.  Production releases are called 
:)-RELEASE, and when you add in accumulated changes to the 
:)latest production release, you get -STABLE.  Major version 
:)numbers change when -CURRENT becomes -RELEASE.  Minor version 
:)numbers change when -STABLE becomes -RELEASE.  New RELEASEs 
:)are distributed on CD ROM.  Tertiary version numbers are 
:)created only for special situations.  Right now new 
:)development is in 5.0-CURRENT, the latest production 
:)release available on CD is 4.2-RELEASE, and the latest 
:)production version (downloadable as source code but not 
:)distributed on CD) is called 4.2-STABLE.
:)
:)I don't know if that long winded explanation was worth 
:)the effort, particularly since this is explained in the 
:)FreeBSD Handbook at http://www.freebsd.org , but since 
:)I've already done the work, here it is...
:)
:)- Bob
:)
:)
:)To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
:)with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
:)

--                                   
Christopher W. Aiken, Scenery Hill, Pa, USA
chris at cwaiken dot com,   www.cwaiken.com
Debian GNU/Linux 2.2_r2  &  FreeBSD 4.2 RELEASE




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