Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 11:40:38 +0900 From: Makoto MATSUSHITA <matusita@jp.FreeBSD.org> To: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: RELENG_4_3 calls itself -RELEASE? Message-ID: <20010803114038W.matusita@jp.FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <01080300314100.00395@spatula.home> References: <01080300314100.00395@spatula.home>
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andrew> Might it be time to invent a new development branch name like FreeBSD andrew> 4.3-SECURITY or 4.3-PATCHED or something like that? I think changing a version string is not a good idea. 4.3-RELEASE is 4.3-RELEASE and nothing else. The version string available by uname(3) comes from kernel MIB, and have no relationship to userland. How kernel knows that a userland have security-fixed libcrypto? No, no way to do that. Yes, there are much requirements to know "how many patches are applied to a system," but we cannot use version string to accomplish this. The only solution is to create a "patch history" database or file, but it's too hard, since there are lots of ways to update 4.3 box (CVSup sources, apply a patch, install security package, etc). But it's simple that you (a system administrator) record a patch history to your memory or whatever. Note that there are some potential pitfalls if we change a version string from 4.3-RELEASE to 4.3-WHATEVER; some scripts may check a system version's string to know that system is "4.3-RELEASE" or not. Again, changing a version doesn't solve any problems except showing "this system is 4.3-RELEASE but some patch (can't know how many) are applied to somewhere (can't know that libcrypto was fixed or not)." -- - Makoto `MAR' MATSUSHITA To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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