notified and may provide a backported version
</li>
<li>
- Any commit in Linus's tree, or a fix for a stable-only
- regression, can be nominated by mail to this list, if it
+ Any commit in Linus's tree can be nominated by mail to this list, if it
meets the criteria - see
<a href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt"><tt>Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt</tt></a>
</li>
+ <li>
+ Occasional regression fix in stable without a corresponding
+ commit in Linus's tree, because the change that regressed was
+ OK in mainline
+ </li>
</ul>
</div>
<h1>The stable update process (2)</h1>
<ul>
<li>
- Stable branch maintainer sends pending changes to the mailing
- list, the original authors, etc., for a time-limited period of
- review and testing
+ Maintainer sends pending changes to mailing list, original
+ authors, etc., for time-limited review and testing
<ul>
<li>
- Although the changes have been accepted by Linus, some might
- not be needed in a stable branch or might not work due to
- missing dependencies
+ Fix might not be needed in a stable branch, or might not
+ work due to missing dependencies
</li>
<li>
- A fix might have been found to introduce a regression in
- mainline, so should only be applied to the stable branch
- along with a second fix for the regression
+ Fix might have been found to introduce a regression in
+ mainline, so must wait until second fix available
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
- All changes that passed review (and maybe some that were
- added) are applied to the stable branch and the release is
- tagged
+ Maintainer drops/adds changes based on review, then applies
+ to stable branch and tags release
</li>
<li>
- Greg pushes the tag to kernel.org (possibly after pulling
- from the other maintainer) which generates tarballs,
- updates the front page, etc.
+ Greg pushes tag to kernel.org (possibly after pulling from
+ another maintainer) which generates tarballs, updates the front
+ page, etc.
</li>
<li>
Maintainer announces the release, shortly followed by LWN
</ul>
</div>
+<div class="slide">
+ <h1>Coordinating longterm branches</h1>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ Linux 2.6.32 was chosen as the basis for RHEL 6, and other
+ distributions preparing a stable release in 2010 opted to do
+ the same
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ The 2.6.32.<var>y</var> longterm branch is the basis for kernel
+ packages in Debian 6.0, SLE11 SP1 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and
+ has over 3,500 changes
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ Other longterm branches have not been quite as widely used or as
+ active - maybe because release schedules didn't align as well
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ Do package maintainers expect/want there to be a longterm stable
+ branch for the kernel version in a stable release?
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ Should we be coordinating more explicitly to ensure that this
+ happens?
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ Would you be prepared to maintain such a branch at kernel.org?
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="slide">
+ <h1>Questions?</h1>
+ <p>
+ The FAQ is
+ <a href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt"><tt>Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt</tt></a>
+ </p>
+</div>
+
<div class="slide">
<h1>Credits</h1>
<ul>