Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 09:17:43 +0200 (MET DST) From: J Wunsch <j@uriah.heep.sax.de> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Cc: pchhibbe@attila.stevens-tech.edu (Parag Chhibber) Subject: Re: Different versions of FreeBSD Message-ID: <199605090717.JAA18428@uriah.heep.sax.de> In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19960509002200.0069dc1c@attila.stevens-tech.edu> from Parag Chhibber at "May 8, 96 08:22:00 pm"
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As Parag Chhibber wrote: > -RELEASE : The absolutely safest version of FreeBSD (currently 2.1) To be correct: the last official release that has undergone the usual quality assurance cycles, and that has been certified ``consistent''. > -CURRENT : A newer version the the stable, basically a little less > stable. Not really. -current and -stable have a common ancestor (this is currently FreeBSD 2.0.5), at which point the -stable branch has been split off in the CVS repository. This was initially done with the goal of releasing 2.1 as a bugfix-mostly upgrade against 2.0.5, but without blocking further development. The main trunk has been named ``2.2-current'' then, to make it clear that all new features will only appear in an upcoming 2.2 release. Later on, after 2.1 has been released, we decided to keep the branch, and bring over further bugfixes from the main development into it, without importing more new (potentially buggy). The intention was to keep this code base as stable as possible, that's why the name. -current itself is simply the latest and greatest development source tree, with all breakage and all that. From time to time it might even be more stable than -stable, ironically. > -SNAPSHOT : The newest "version" of FreeBSD. No, as the name says, a snapshot of a development system, either taken from -current, or potentially also from the -stable branch, though the latter didn't happen yet. > Is that correct? If it is, then I guess if I want to start an ISP, I should > start familiarizing myself with -RELEASE? Start with 2.1-RELEASE, and have a close look to all bugfixes that have been brought into the 2.1-stable branch. For something like an ISP, i wouldn't auto-add all bugfixes, but only apply hand-selected patches (once you know they might be good for you, and you've code- reviewed them to be sure that's what you need). -- cheers, J"org joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)
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