Linux 2.4.18 - the missing patch issue

Linux 2.4.18 - the missing patch issue

[Jesper Juhl]

Ok, so 2.4.18 was released without a fix that onyl matters to a very 
limited number of Linux users, while that's not perfect it's not the end 
of the world either.

A few different solutions have been suggested :

1) People have suggested releasing a new 2.4.18 emidiately which 
includes the missing fix.
2) Someone proposed to release 2.4.19 imidiately which would be 2.4.18 + 
the missing fix.
3) Some people just want to forget about it ;)

All 3 are IMVHO bad ideas for these reasons; nr. 1 would create 
confusion by having two different versions of 2.4.18 floating around. 
nr. 2 would probably also cause some minor degree of confusion amongst 
users and would also give the (wrong) impression that Linux kernel 
releases are not thoroughly tested. I'll not comment on 3 ;)

I suggest that instead of the previously proposed solutions an effort 
should instead be made to release 2.4.19 relatively fast. Instead of 
including a lot of fixes, only include the most critical known fixes in 
2.4.19-pre1 (and maybe -pre2), then go to -rc1 as soon as possible and 
get 2.4.19 out the door pretty fast with important fixes and leave all 
other stuff for 2.4.20-pre1


Just my 0.02 euro-cent


- Jesper Juhl - jju@dif.dk -

Re: Linux 2.4.18 - the missing patch issue

[Mike Fedyk]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2002 at 11:25:25PM +0100, Jesper Juhl wrote:
> I suggest that instead of the previously proposed solutions an effort 
> should instead be made to release 2.4.19 relatively fast. Instead of 
> including a lot of fixes, only include the most critical known fixes in 
> 2.4.19-pre1 (and maybe -pre2), then go to -rc1 as soon as possible and 
> get 2.4.19 out the door pretty fast with important fixes and leave all 
> other stuff for 2.4.20-pre1
> 

Does anyone know how long this bug has been in the kernel?

If it's an old bug, 2.4.19-pre1 already has the fix, just like rc4 did...

This *one* bug isn't big enough to hurry, IMO.

Mike

Re: Linux 2.4.18 - the missing patch issue

[Robert Love]

On Mon, 2002-02-25 at 17:34, Mike Fedyk wrote:

> Does anyone know how long this bug has been in the kernel?

For a very short time -- it was introduced around pre6.

> If it's an old bug, 2.4.19-pre1 already has the fix, just like rc4 did...
> 
> This *one* bug isn't big enough to hurry, IMO.

Agreed.

	Robert Love

RE: Linux 2.4.18 - the missing patch issue

[Jesper Juhl]

 
 > > I suggest that instead of the previously proposed solutions an effort
 > > should instead be made to release 2.4.19 relatively fast. Instead of
 > > including a lot of fixes, only include the most critical known fixes
 > in
 > > 2.4.19-pre1 (and maybe -pre2), then go to -rc1 as soon as possible and
 >
 > > get 2.4.19 out the door pretty fast with important fixes and leave all
 >
 > > other stuff for 2.4.20-pre1
 > >
 >
 > Does anyone know how long this bug has been in the kernel?
 >
 > If it's an old bug, 2.4.19-pre1 already has the fix, just like rc4
 > did...
 >
 > This *one* bug isn't big enough to hurry, IMO.

You are probably right, a resonably harmless bug should not be enough to 
justify a rushed 2.4.19 release. But the confusion and "bad publicity" 
/might/ justify it.
I personally don't think that the publicity issue is something that the 
kernel people should be concerned about, but user confusion probably is 
- confused users submitting bug reports and/or patches against two 
different 2.4.18 versions sounds to me like something that you want to 
keep to a minimum, and the only way I see of removing that confusion is 
to get 2.4.18 out of the way and replaced with 2.4.19 as soon as possible.

- Jesper Juhl - jju@dif.dk -