From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Feb 11 13:10:20 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA21565 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 11 Feb 1998 13:10:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from proxyb1.san.rr.com (proxyb1-atm.san.rr.com [204.210.0.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA21548 for ; Wed, 11 Feb 1998 13:10:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from Studded@dal.net) Received: from dal.net (dt050ndd.san.rr.com [204.210.31.221]) by proxyb1.san.rr.com (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA19017; Wed, 11 Feb 1998 13:09:13 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <34E20535.8EB15AB5@dal.net> Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 12:08:21 -0800 From: Studded Organization: Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (X11; I; FreeBSD 2.2.5-STABLE-0131 i386) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Ross Potts CC: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: -RELEASE and -STABLE References: <9802111033.ZM6999@unknown.zmail.host> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Ross Potts wrote: > > I was wondering why there aren't two releases of each version (only when it > comes out new mind you) to be pressed on CD. I know they are available for > download as -RELEASE (which always needs pathes) and -STABLE(which incorporates > most of the patches up to a certain date). > > Are there -STABLE releases available on CD? I was just wondering, since I > subscribed to Walnut Creeks's program. > > Or am I mistaken and does this dual release exist outside of the FTP > environment? Keeping in mind that I am not part of and don't speak for the FreeBSD team, I think you misunderstand the meanings of "Release" and "Stable" as they apply here. When a "-Release" version of FreeBSD is stamped onto a CD, that code is frozen in time, and anything that is called (for example) 2.2.5-Release will always be the same. In the time period before and after that point in the development of the code that the -Release is taken from, there are changes (almost always improvements :) being made all the time. The 2.2* branch of FreeBSD is called -Stable because the changes that are committed to it should be (you guessed it) stable. That is, they should have been thoroughly tested before they are committed, and anyone downloading -Stable on a given day should have a high degree of certainty that it will work. Are you seeing the distinction? A -Release version will always be the same thing, forever. A 2.2.5-Stable version that you download today will be the same on your machine, but the 2.2.5-Stable version I download tomorrow will very likely contain some small differences. When enough differences/improvements have accumulated, it's time for a new -Release version, and the FreeBSD project is working on that now. That's why there are no -Stable CD's. By the time it's time for a new one of those, we call it -Release. :) Hope this helps, Doug -- *** Chief Operations Officer, DALnet IRC network *** *** Proud operator, designer and maintainer of the world's largest *** Internet Relay Chat server. 5,328 clients and still growing. *** Try spider.dal.net on ports 6662-4 (Powered by FreeBSD) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe questions" in the body of the message