All of lore.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
To: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	Linux Documentation <linux-doc@vger.kernel.org>,
	Linux Kernel Workflows <workflows@vger.kernel.org>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
	Dante Strock <dantestrock@hotmail.com>,
	Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>,
	Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: process: Do not hardcode kernel major version number
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2025 08:51:47 +0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20250913015147.9544-1-bagasdotme@gmail.com> (raw)

The big picture section of 2.Process.rst currently hardcodes major
version number to 5 since fb0e0ffe7fc8e0 ("Documentation: bring process
docs up to date"). As it can get outdated when it is actually
incremented (the recent is 6 and will be 7 in the near future), replace
it with the placeholder.

Note that the version number examples are kept to illustrate the
numbering scheme.

Signed-off-by: Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/process/2.Process.rst | 40 ++++++++++++-----------------
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst b/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst
index ef3b116492df08..668d5559ded039 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst
@@ -13,24 +13,18 @@ how the process works is required in order to be an effective part of it.
 The big picture
 ---------------
 
-The kernel developers use a loosely time-based release process, with a new
-major kernel release happening every two or three months.  The recent
-release history looks like this:
+Linux kernel uses a loosely time-based, rolling release development model.
+A new major kernel release (a.x) [1]_ happens every two or three monts, which
+comes with new features, internal API changes, and more. A typical release
+can contain about 13,000 changesets with changes to several hundred thousand
+lines of code. Recent releases, along with their dates, can be found at
+`Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel_version_history>`_.
 
-	======  =================
-	5.0	March 3, 2019
-	5.1	May 5, 2019
-	5.2	July 7, 2019
-	5.3	September 15, 2019
-	5.4	November 24, 2019
-	5.5	January 6, 2020
-	======  =================
-
-Every 5.x release is a major kernel release with new features, internal
-API changes, and more.  A typical release can contain about 13,000
-changesets with changes to several hundred thousand lines of code.  5.x is
-the leading edge of Linux kernel development; the kernel uses a
-rolling development model which is continually integrating major changes.
+.. [1] Strictly speaking, Linux kernel do not use semantic versioning
+       number scheme, but rather a.x pair identifies major release
+       version as a whole number. For each release, x is incremented,
+       but a is incremented only if x is deemed large enough (e.g.
+       Linux 5.0 is released following Linux 4.20).
 
 A relatively straightforward discipline is followed with regard to the
 merging of patches for each release.  At the beginning of each development
@@ -48,9 +42,9 @@ detail later on).
 
 The merge window lasts for approximately two weeks.  At the end of this
 time, Linus Torvalds will declare that the window is closed and release the
-first of the "rc" kernels.  For the kernel which is destined to be 5.6,
+first of the "rc" kernels.  For the kernel which is destined to be a.x,
 for example, the release which happens at the end of the merge window will
-be called 5.6-rc1.  The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to
+be called a.x-rc1.  The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to
 merge new features has passed, and that the time to stabilize the next
 kernel has begun.
 
@@ -99,13 +93,13 @@ release is made.  In the real world, this kind of perfection is hard to
 achieve; there are just too many variables in a project of this size.
 There comes a point where delaying the final release just makes the problem
 worse; the pile of changes waiting for the next merge window will grow
-larger, creating even more regressions the next time around.  So most 5.x
-kernels go out with a handful of known regressions though, hopefully, none
-of them are serious.
+larger, creating even more regressions the next time around.  So most kernels
+go out with a handful of known regressions though, hopefully, none of them
+are serious.
 
 Once a stable release is made, its ongoing maintenance is passed off to the
 "stable team," currently Greg Kroah-Hartman. The stable team will release
-occasional updates to the stable release using the 5.x.y numbering scheme.
+occasional updates to the stable release using the a.x.y numbering scheme.
 To be considered for an update release, a patch must (1) fix a significant
 bug, and (2) already be merged into the mainline for the next development
 kernel. Kernels will typically receive stable updates for a little more

base-commit: f44a29784f685804d9970cfb0d3439c9e30981d7
-- 
An old man doll... just what I always wanted! - Clara


             reply	other threads:[~2025-09-13  1:51 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2025-09-13  1:51 Bagas Sanjaya [this message]
2025-09-13 21:40 ` [PATCH] Documentation: process: Do not hardcode kernel major version number Randy Dunlap
2025-09-14  3:18   ` Bagas Sanjaya
2025-09-14  6:10     ` Randy Dunlap
2025-09-14  7:20       ` Bagas Sanjaya
2025-09-16 16:07 ` Jonathan Corbet
2025-09-18  3:37   ` Bagas Sanjaya

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20250913015147.9544-1-bagasdotme@gmail.com \
    --to=bagasdotme@gmail.com \
    --cc=corbet@lwn.net \
    --cc=dantestrock@hotmail.com \
    --cc=linux-doc@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=rdunlap@infradead.org \
    --cc=workflows@vger.kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.