Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2021 12:11:53 +0100 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: "@lbutlr" <kremels@kreme.com> Cc: FreeBSD <questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Suggestion for release names? Message-ID: <20210204121153.6616001f.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <A92FC4A6-A2C4-4D50-880D-615A2A124468@kreme.com> References: <A92FC4A6-A2C4-4D50-880D-615A2A124468@kreme.com>
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On Wed, 3 Feb 2021 13:34:30 -0700, @lbutlr wrote: > I know the subject of user confusion on STABLE and RELEASE has come > up in the past, but I found out that releng is also confusing as I > was recently talking to someone who only ran releng versions of > freebsd because he thought that was an English only version of > Release. RELENG means release engineering - unfortunate misunderstanding. > I know this is probably futile and there's little reason to change, > but I think all three animus could be better. The "problem" is that those termini technici all carry a well understood meaning, which now is to be considered history (i. e., "for historic reasons"). Even worse, if you try to do a mapping of RELEASE-p<n> | RELEASE | | home user PRERELEASE | | embedded RC<n> | is to be | desktop BETA | used for | server ALPHA | | tester STABLE | | developer CURRENT / HEAD | this will be very hard and probably won't work. ;-) Note that especially tha ALPHA, BETA, PRERELEASE and RC tags are not always used. > STABLE -> "PreRelease" or "Candidate" (although RC is already used, > so many not that) Both suggestions already have been in use: -PRERELEASE and -RC<n> are point during development on the way to RELEASE. Also STABLE isn't really a pre-release or release candidate. It's more a "step during development" that contains stuff that will probably be in the next release, as well as being the source for special security patches that should be backported to earlier versions still under support. > RELEASE -> "" or "Production" or Tht term RELEASE indicates that this is what has been released on the installation media - today, files from the Internet, but historically RELEASE was what you got on the CD set. :-) > Releng -> Development That doesn't fully match the path of RELENG (release engineering). Like in a distillery, the development happens at the top, at HEAD or CURRENT. Those versions can add and remove (!) features, will sometimes not even build properly, and can be subject to significant changes. What has been approved, will then be in STABLE, which also means that the ABI will be stable. From that level, work will be done toward the next RELEASE, and also the patches for already existing releases are generated (RELEASE-p<n>). > I'm not proposing the these are the names that should be picked, > but I think names could be picked that make it clearer that RELEASE > is the 'real' version for most everyone and not stable and spells > out more clearly what releng is. Maybe the following documentation parts should be more prominently presented on the home page? https://www.freebsd.org/releases/ https://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/ https://docs.freebsd.org/doc/3.5-RELEASE/usr/share/doc/handbook/current-stable.html https://docs.freebsd.org/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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