Re: RFD: Kernel release numbering

Jeff Garzik
2005-03-03T19:48:26Z

Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 18:08 +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:
>
>
>>This only attacks part of the problem.
>
>
> It still does not solve the problem of "untested" releases. Users will
> still ignore the linus-tree-rcX kernels.
>
> So we move the real -rcX phase after the so called stable release.
>
> Doing -rcX from the "sucker" tree up to a stable release makes much more
> sense and would have more testers and get back lost confidence.

Nod. I really don't think the key penguins understand that there is
even a problem here. Let me attempt to re-state the problem:

There is no flag day when "bugfixes only" mode begins.

There are two component to this problem:

1) Release maintainers need to avoid merging non-bugfixes. Lately, the
key penguins _have_ been doing their job here. This manifested in
2.6.11-rc4, 2.6.11-rc5.

2) This "flag day" when bugfixes-only mode starts needs to be completely
obvious to _scripts_ and really dumb people. Posting to LKML "with this
-rc, I am only taking serious bugfixes" doesn't cut it. There must be a
clear, consistent point where testing may begin.

As a result of this problem, people have learned [just re-read this
thread if you don't believe me] that "-rc" doesn't really mean Release
Candidate until -rc2 or -rc3 or so. And as a result of that, people do
less testing.

Jeff