Re: [RFC] -stable, how it's going to work.

[Russell King <rmk+lkml@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 08:44:01PM +0100, Andi Kleen wrote:
> But it risks code drift like we had in 2.4 with older kernels 
> having more fixes than the newer kernel. And that way lies madness.

I believe it's going to work like this:

* simple fixes are submitted to Linus and -stable, and are appropriately
  merged.
* complex "correct" fixes too large for -stable are submitted to Linus,
  with a simplified version for -stable.

When the next Linus kernel is released, anything in the previous -stable
series is effectively discarded, and the next -stable series is produced
from the new release point.

Obviously, the -stable sucker can continue with his existing -stable
series if he so wishes, but I would expect that any fixes in, eg,
2.6.11.x would not be propagated by the -stable sucker to 2.6.12.x.

This may be a good thing - it encourages people to get the fixes into
the Linus tree, thereby keeping the code drift to a minimum.  Any
drift would only exist for one of these -stable branches, which may
only survive for maybe one Linus kernel release cycle.

-- 
Russell King
 Linux kernel    2.6 ARM Linux   - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/
 maintainer of:  2.6 Serial core