Re: New (now current development process)

Linus Torvalds
2005-11-07T17:34:36Z

On Mon, 7 Nov 2005, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
> So repeat after me: "Most people never test -rc kernels".

Btw, the ones that _do_ test -rc kernels usually don't test all of them.
The current model is set up in a way where there is _one_ special -rc
kernel that we should try to get people to test: the first one.

That hopefully encourages people to try an -rc kernel who might otherwise
decide that there's too many -rc kernels to bother with. If they know that
all of the real development happened before -rc1, they also are thus aware
that it doesn't really matter which -rc kernel they test, so just testing
_one_ is very good indeed.

The first -rc kernel is also special in another way: it's the one we
"wait" for. It's the one that happens after two weeks, and has a deadline.
The others happen more frequently, and are really objectively less
important than the first one.

(In contrast, some other projects try to make the _last_ -rc be the
important one. That's totally the wrong way around, because if there are
more people testing the last one, the testing happens at _exactly_ the
wrong point in time from a "let's fix the problems" standpoint)

So the call to people who can be bothered to test at all: if you
only test one -rc kernel, please test the first one. That way we get a
heads-up on problems earlier.

(And if you like testing -rc kernels, please test all of them. Or even the
nightly snapshots. Or track the git tree several times a day. The more,
the merrier, but if you only want to boot one kernel a month, make it be
the -rc1 kernel).

Linus