Re: RFD: Kernel release numbering

Rene Herman
2005-03-03T09:50:04Z

Linus Torvalds wrote:

>>2.6.x-pre: bugfixes and features
>>2.6.x-rc: bugfixes only
>
>
> And the reason it does _not_ work is that all the people we want testing
> sure as _hell_ won't be testing -rc versions.

Speaking, presumably, as one of those people you are talking about, no,
that is not correct.

Between 2.6.6-rc3 and 2.6.6, you merged an IDE patch that made my disk
complain loudly and at the time I was fairly annoyed by that. I had been
testing all the -rc's but then wondered what the point had been. Things
could break anytime anyways so it seemed I might as well test whenever I
personally felt like it rather than on anyone else's schedule, which is
exactly what I did for a while.

Up to this point, I really only grab an -rc if I'm not doing anything
interesting otherwise.

And this is just because your -rc's aren't -rc's. Yes, in a sense it's
all just naming and I've been telling others that complained about it as
much, but in the sense that I'm not testing as many -rc's as you would
apparently like me to, it is more substantial after all.

Your even/odd point releases will not work. In no time at all the same
people that now avoid -rc will then avoid odd releases, and they are the
same people that will avoid the -pre releases. They are _not_ the exact
same group of people that will be avoiding a real -rc as well though. I
for instance would be likely to test every -rc you release, on the
promise that if the thing works out it's final.

Doing -pre and real -rc will get you more testers for -rc. Whether or
not it's enough remains to be seen, but it seems like something you
could test out for a few months without much problem.

Add in the fourth level .k releases for real problematic bugs found
after release as you did with 2.6.8.1, and I believe things should work.

Rene.