From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 22 12:37:34 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0E00616A403 for ; Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:37:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xfb52@dial.pipex.com) Received: from smtp-out3.blueyonder.co.uk (smtp-out3.blueyonder.co.uk [195.188.213.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 387F043D45 for ; Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:37:04 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from xfb52@dial.pipex.com) Received: from [172.23.170.136] (helo=anti-virus01-07) by smtp-out3.blueyonder.co.uk with smtp (Exim 4.52) id 1GmrM3-0002mh-Gt; Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:37:31 +0000 Received: from [82.41.32.108] (helo=[192.168.0.2]) by asmtp-out6.blueyonder.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1GmrM2-0003Qs-Uh; Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:37:30 +0000 Message-ID: <45644484.8040502@dial.pipex.com> Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:37:24 +0000 From: Alex Zbyslaw User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-GB; rv:1.7.13) Gecko/20061106 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: User Questions References: <231508.24266.qm@web25008.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> <20061122070915.69C5.GERARD@seibercom.net> In-Reply-To: <20061122070915.69C5.GERARD@seibercom.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Upgrade Question X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:37:34 -0000 Gerard Seibert wrote: >On Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 09:08:42 (PM) illoai@gmail.com wrote: > > > > >>RELENG_6 for whatever 6-STABLE is (6.2 right now but will soon >>enough be moving on towards 6.3.). >> >> > >I wasn't aware that 6.2 had been released as 'STABLE' yet. > > > Short version: No, the OP was correct. Long version: You've confused STABLE with RELEASE. 6.2 has not reached RELEASE. 6-STABLE is the latest "these changes worked fine in CURRENT (right now, aka 7) and have been MFCed (merged from current) so that more people can try them out", which right now corresponds to the version of FreeBSD that is just about to be released which also happens to be called 6.2-RC1 (release candidate 1)). When 6.2 is ready to go, a new RELEASE branch is created (6.2-RELEASE) which only gets security fixes. 6-STABLE then starts tracking 6.3, just as the OP said, though no 6.3 branch is created as such (iiuc). 6.3 tags start being created when enough worthwhile changes have been MFCed into 6-STABLE and the next release cycle is ready to start. Depressingly, the STABLE tag makes perfect sense once you grasp the branch structure that FreeBSD uses, but causes no end of confusion otherwise. STABLE in this context means "worked stably in the most up-to-date version of the source code that exists". It does not means "stable enough to use on production servers or other critical environments", though frequently it will be - just not always, as changes which worked for the limited number of people who run CURRENT machines, may break in more diverse environments when more people running STABLE try them. --Alex