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@@ -56,24 +56,25 @@
Linux stable releases
-
- Linus releases a 'stable' 3.x every 2-3 months after
+ Linus releases a stable 3.x every 2-3 months after
a series of release candidates
-
- Greg K-H maintains a 'stable branch' for each Linus release, with
- releases numbered 3.x.y
+ Greg K-H maintains a stable branch for each Linus
+ release, with stable update releases numbered
+ 3.x.y
-
- Stable branch includes cherry-picked or backported changes to
- fix serious bugs and add support for new devices
+ Branch includes cherry-picked or backported changes to fix
+ serious bugs and add support for new devices
-
- Stable update releases roughly every 1-2 weeks, at least until
+ Updates released roughly every 1-2 weeks, at least until
3.x+1 is available
-
- A 'long-term' stable branch may be maintained by Greg or another
- developer beyond this period
+ A longterm stable branch may be maintained by Greg or
+ another developer beyond this period (I look after 3.2)
@@ -94,19 +95,119 @@
notified and may provide a backported version
- Any commit in Linus's tree, or a fix for a stable-only
- regression, can be nominated by mail to this list, if it
- meets the criteria
+ Any commit in Linus's tree can be nominated by mail to this list, if it
+ meets the criteria - see
+ Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt
+
+
+ Occasional regression fix in stable without a corresponding
+ commit in Linus's tree, because the change that regressed was
+ OK in mainline
+
+
+
+
+
+
The stable update process (2)
+
+ -
+ Maintainer sends pending changes to mailing list, original
+ authors, etc., for time-limited review and testing
+
+ -
+ Fix might not be needed in a stable branch, or might not
+ work due to missing dependencies
+
+ -
+ Fix might have been found to introduce a regression in
+ mainline, so must wait until second fix available
+
+
+
+ -
+ Maintainer drops/adds changes based on review, then applies
+ to stable branch and tags release
+
+ -
+ Greg pushes tag to kernel.org (possibly after pulling from
+ another maintainer) which generates tarballs, updates the front
+ page, etc.
+
+ -
+ Maintainer announces the release, shortly followed by LWN
+ and other news media
+
+
+
+
+
+
Distributions and stable updates
+
+ -
+ Package maintainers want to get bug fixes without waiting for
+ the next release - particularly for security
+
+ -
+ Maintainers report bugs upstream, find and sometimes write
+ fixes, and stable updates are a way to share these fixes across
+ distributions
+ -
+ Distribution stable releases have a much longer support period
+ than kernel release cycle, but updating to every new Linus
+ release is too risky
+
+ -
+ So the longterm stable branches are very important for most
+ distributions with stable releases
+
+
+
Coordinating longterm branches
+
+ -
+ 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
+
+ -
+ The 2.6.32.y 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
+
+ -
+ Other longterm branches have not been quite as widely used or as
+ active - maybe because release schedules didn't align as well
+
+ -
+ Do package maintainers expect/want there to be a longterm stable
+ branch for the kernel version in a stable release?
+
+ -
+ Should we be coordinating more explicitly to ensure that this
+ happens?
+
+ -
+ Would you be prepared to maintain such a branch at kernel.org?
+
+
+
+
+
+