[PATCH v2] Documentation: process: Arbitrarily bump kernel major version number

Bagas Sanjaya
2025-09-22T07:42:38Z

The big picture section of 2.Process.rst currently hardcodes major
version number to 5 since fb0e0ffe7fc8e0 ("Documentation: bring process
docs up to date"). As it can get outdated when it is actually
incremented (the recent is 6 and will be 7 in the near future),
arbitrarily bump it to 9, giving a headroom for a decade.

Note that the version number examples are kept to illustrate the
numbering scheme.

Signed-off-by: Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
---
Changes since v1 [1]:

* Arbitrarily bump major number rather than replacing it with placeholder
(Jon)
* Apply proofreading corrections (Randy)

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-doc/20250913015147.9544-1-bagasdotme@gmail.com/

Documentation/process/2.Process.rst | 40 ++++++++++++-----------------
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst b/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst
index ef3b116492df08..bbd955d91df0cd 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst
@@ -13,24 +13,18 @@ how the process works is required in order to be an effective part of it.
The big picture
---------------

-The kernel developers use a loosely time-based release process, with a new
-major kernel release happening every two or three months. The recent
-release history looks like this:
+The Linux kernel uses a loosely time-based, rolling release development model.
+A new major kernel release (9.x) [1]_ happens every two or three months, which
+comes with new features, internal API changes, and more. A typical release
+can contain about 13,000 changesets with changes to several hundred thousand
+lines of code. Recent releases, along with their dates, can be found at
+`Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel_version_history>`_.

- ====== =================
- 5.0 March 3, 2019
- 5.1 May 5, 2019
- 5.2 July 7, 2019
- 5.3 September 15, 2019
- 5.4 November 24, 2019
- 5.5 January 6, 2020
- ====== =================
-
-Every 5.x release is a major kernel release with new features, internal
-API changes, and more. A typical release can contain about 13,000
-changesets with changes to several hundred thousand lines of code. 5.x is
-the leading edge of Linux kernel development; the kernel uses a
-rolling development model which is continually integrating major changes.
+.. [1] Strictly speaking, the Linux kernel does not use semantic versioning
+ number scheme, but rather the 9.x pair identifies major release
+ version as a whole number. For each release, x is incremented,
+ but 9 is incremented only if x is deemed large enough (e.g.
+ Linux 5.0 is released following Linux 4.20).

A relatively straightforward discipline is followed with regard to the
merging of patches for each release. At the beginning of each development
@@ -48,9 +42,9 @@ detail later on).

The merge window lasts for approximately two weeks. At the end of this
time, Linus Torvalds will declare that the window is closed and release the
-first of the "rc" kernels. For the kernel which is destined to be 5.6,
+first of the "rc" kernels. For the kernel which is destined to be 9.x,
for example, the release which happens at the end of the merge window will
-be called 5.6-rc1. The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to
+be called 9.x-rc1. The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to
merge new features has passed, and that the time to stabilize the next
kernel has begun.

@@ -99,13 +93,13 @@ release is made. In the real world, this kind of perfection is hard to
achieve; there are just too many variables in a project of this size.
There comes a point where delaying the final release just makes the problem
worse; the pile of changes waiting for the next merge window will grow
-larger, creating even more regressions the next time around. So most 5.x
-kernels go out with a handful of known regressions though, hopefully, none
-of them are serious.
+larger, creating even more regressions the next time around. So most kernels
+go out with a handful of known regressions, though, hopefully, none of them
+are serious.

Once a stable release is made, its ongoing maintenance is passed off to the
"stable team," currently Greg Kroah-Hartman. The stable team will release
-occasional updates to the stable release using the 5.x.y numbering scheme.
+occasional updates to the stable release using the 9.x.y numbering scheme.
To be considered for an update release, a patch must (1) fix a significant
bug, and (2) already be merged into the mainline for the next development
kernel. Kernels will typically receive stable updates for a little more

base-commit: 348011753d99b146c190aae262ee361d03cb0c5e