From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from fout-b8-smtp.messagingengine.com (fout-b8-smtp.messagingengine.com [202.12.124.151]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 93DA723B61A for ; Thu, 10 Jul 2025 22:16:17 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=202.12.124.151 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1752185780; cv=none; b=Z32zXgE3gMhcPy1c3g46dSTjLVGCe0qsVaNkha0SaArmLfqV9BhpownLkO/ZBMTGAA6onz1w1arsL8bP2rIeeTaOw08S+hhAmpul4fWou326dHajLWic8IEw3IKd+fPeHMoLmGKI4K0/WhQ0Q+VtLOUPiSGV2CIhyHZrI0ynvQc= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1752185780; c=relaxed/simple; bh=VlEiNG0zK52FLXS0+ATihgp6L8H/DQU/z5qGpyb6SjE=; h=From:To:Subject:Date:Message-ID:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=oQbAhy5aOq7DApmJyj/0GBLfKF/k2FZAmVGK/fAQ6Y96DotPOfO9+fFtRglf4B+i3OQoaLSr+5gjfdBycvHOd+aMn5zLOVQRLsua9r+4IE7obc3kpjMWQYLZT782fN6kpqlUKvIITix6K6CCwyBJ374hdbl9BS/sxip4mRgY2mk= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=pobox.com; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=pobox.com; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=pobox.com header.i=@pobox.com header.b=WZX2vRt6; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=messagingengine.com header.i=@messagingengine.com header.b=h3ms7llb; arc=none smtp.client-ip=202.12.124.151 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=pobox.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=pobox.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=pobox.com header.i=@pobox.com header.b="WZX2vRt6"; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=messagingengine.com header.i=@messagingengine.com header.b="h3ms7llb" Received: from phl-compute-03.internal (phl-compute-03.phl.internal [10.202.2.43]) by mailfout.stl.internal (Postfix) with ESMTP id 83E701D000F1; Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:16:16 -0400 (EDT) Received: from phl-frontend-02 ([10.202.2.161]) by phl-compute-03.internal (MEProxy); Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:16:16 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=pobox.com; h=cc :content-type:content-type:date:date:from:from:in-reply-to :message-id:mime-version:reply-to:subject:subject:to:to; s=fm1; t=1752185776; x=1752272176; bh=roFFUibW8RQ1tiMsgwujI2rxdiAAdF4v Z2oTkzsINAY=; b=WZX2vRt6WuqqbLrZH48a1Qt7SkZUPKsDGlvxI/zadJeKgUt3 iZI5WDwdgLFBiQCP/5gBmACRepLWTzNS96qt3J+zZK9wf/1wVp3tnE3gktRl1aHX ZcNtxNB/aX0r2RNic/BJdlUa4Y7O/ySPY/uaUNKq+RgQ1g3P8E+VZ/xVBT3vGoxq 25CrNNR19FP1qa6heFBuwPP+7oh5WvrSXo4QYmR880piYYfBl88VgWPz09QEEwuX PHR3447kqlC7lf7INriTZQn2h6ylw/KOW+b+ko7xYwek8376xmx+cFoGZqSrTniq h3IEZQR5w5Fmq685/w5UM3aShwx4pYJE5qBTZw== DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d= messagingengine.com; h=cc:content-type:content-type:date:date :feedback-id:feedback-id:from:from:in-reply-to:message-id :mime-version:reply-to:subject:subject:to:to:x-me-proxy :x-me-sender:x-me-sender:x-sasl-enc; s=fm2; t=1752185776; x= 1752272176; bh=roFFUibW8RQ1tiMsgwujI2rxdiAAdF4vZ2oTkzsINAY=; b=h 3ms7llbaUAybBqAKaLrqpi/VC7OgBtz4JkHDD/zKYgQT+xbWVDYzaP6SxnhOYMSA 9/r/MMY9qeH68Gi6mcaE2DOxclciaOD+qd+shRAj6StF/bP/sbL9jYPBHFbOi5gO ECJwfaRvGjLwyVAe73VQit5WH6z/BqsKMrnf5eptc2ZuGIIEZFPa5qdhsPhIqISo tbS569PeaAv6gsckMTuvGazkJpQhSvbNcr18o6dwwZ2M4MVXyxqezO0W3my1STo/ D9e8e0EGd1ugFCseCx+8e3P+X9detSpdcV4OB3gWMWcwuqIeJlJT1ZF14jb/n4eu 8YPjbiohV98KlKEajqvpw== X-ME-Sender: X-ME-Received: X-ME-Proxy-Cause: gggruggvucftvghtrhhoucdtuddrgeeffedrtdefgdegudeiudcutefuodetggdotefrod ftvfcurfhrohhfihhlvgemucfhrghsthforghilhdpuffrtefokffrpgfnqfghnecuuegr ihhlohhuthemuceftddtnecunecujfgurhephffvufffkfgfgggtsehttdertddtredtne cuhfhrohhmpefluhhnihhoucevucfjrghmrghnohcuoehgihhtshhtvghrsehpohgsohig rdgtohhmqeenucggtffrrghtthgvrhhnpeelvdeftdeftdekfeeuveelgfelteeiueffff ekhffgkeevheekhffgteejhfffgeenucevlhhushhtvghrufhiiigvpedtnecurfgrrhgr mhepmhgrihhlfhhrohhmpehgihhtshhtvghrsehpohgsohigrdgtohhmpdhnsggprhgtph htthhopedvpdhmohguvgepshhmthhpohhuthdprhgtphhtthhopehgihhtsehvghgvrhdr khgvrhhnvghlrdhorhhgpdhrtghpthhtohepghhithhsthgvrhesphhosghogidrtghomh X-ME-Proxy: Feedback-ID: if26b431b:Fastmail Received: by mail.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTPA; Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:16:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Junio C Hamano To: git@vger.kernel.org Subject: [RFD] helping distributors by changing the release schedule? Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:16:14 -0700 Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Seeing that some distros seem to have botched their own backporting of gitk patches to maintenance tracks that are older than what we would support, I am wondering if we can do something to help them, without bending over backwards beyond reasonable effort that should be expected of us. The latest security fixes went to 8 maintenance tracks but I suspect it is probably 5 or 6 too many. Here is an idea. What would happen if we stop tagging any releases, and instead change the "release" model to tag the commit that happens to be at the tip of "master" once a month, strictly based on time (so after Git 2.50.0, we would have Git 2.50.202508 and then the next one would be Git 2.50.202509, if we decided to do this once every month)? If we "release" reasonably often enough to make the distinction between the tags so smooth and meaningless, would it help in weaning the distros off of their mentality that pick one "major" version and stick to that version unless the user upgrades the Operating System version as a whole? After all, we do not make changes that are backward-incompatible at the end-user level, and the "we stick to a given single major released version to give stability to our users" mantra that leads distros to ship and support an ancient version is hurting them (and their users) more than helping.