Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 5 Apr 2001 09:47:24 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Steve Tremblett <sjt@cisco.com>
To:        ben@freebsd.org (Ben Smithurst)
Cc:        freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Further question Re: cvsupped to RELENG_4 but got 4.3-RC
Message-ID:  <200104051347.JAA03586@sjt-u10.cisco.com>
In-Reply-To: <20010405134044.A72405@scientia.demon.co.uk> from "Ben Smithurst" at Apr 05, 2001 01:40:44 PM

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
+--- Ben Smithurst wrote:
| 
| Did you read the first sentence of that FAQ entry?  "Short answer: it's
| just a name."
| 
| If you cvsup the RELENG_4 branch, you're getting FreeBSD-stable, whether
| it be called -STABLE, -RC, -BETA, -FISHCAKE, -UNSTABLE-AS-HELL, or
| even -CURRENT if someone felt like playing an April Fool's day joke in
| /sys/conf/newvers.sh. :-)
| 

I was under the impression that 4-STABLE was primarily for bugfixes
applied to the 4.2-RELEASE codebase, and 4-CURRENT is for development
of new features.  Given that rationale, 4.3-RC should be a preliminary
merge of CURRENT code into STABLE.  The intruduction of (relatively)
unproven code into an established as-stable-as-possible codebase
introduces instability until after it has been tested, therefore just
because 4.3-RC == 4-STABLE, that does not imply that 4.3-RC == stable.

People aren't concerned with the NAME, they are concerned about
updating production machines to what is supposedly the latest bugfixed
version, and getting a beta version instead.  While the code in the new
features may be of the highest quality and could possibly be bug free,
if I'm running a frontline webserver I don't want to be the guy who
discovers a bug in this new code.  Then again, once I have a working
config on that webserver, I shouldn't be updating all that often and
only for specific fixes, but that is another can of worms.

I'd prefer to stay with 4-STABLE from the date of the codefreeze as
opposed to 4.3-RC.  I'll be waiting until 4.3-RELEASE before updating.

my $0.02 (Canadian)

-- 
Steve Tremblett
Cisco Systems

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200104051347.JAA03586>