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[stable-kernel-talk.git] / index.html

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   <h1>Linux stable releases</h1>
   <ul>
     <li>
-      Linus releases a 'stable' 3.<var>x</var> every 2-3 months after
+      Linus releases a stable 3.<var>x</var> every 2-3 months after
       a series of release candidates
     </li>
     <li>
-      Greg K-H maintains a 'stable branch' for each Linus release, with
-      releases numbered 3.<var>x</var>.<var>y</var>
+      Greg K-H maintains a <dfn>stable branch</dfn> for each Linus
+      release, with <dfn>stable update</dfn> releases numbered
+      3.<var>x</var>.<var>y</var>
     </li>
     <li>
-      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
     </li>
     <li>
-      Stable update releases roughly every 1-2 weeks, at least until
+      Updates released roughly every 1-2 weeks, at least until
       3.<var>x</var>+1 is available
     </li>
     <li>
-      A 'long-term' stable branch may be maintained by Greg or another
-      developer beyond this period
+      A <dfn>longterm</dfn> stable branch may be maintained by Greg or
+      another developer beyond this period (I look after 3.2)
     </li>
   </ul>
 </div>
@@ -94,19 +95,119 @@
       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
-      meets the criteria
+      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>
+
+<div class="slide">
+  <h1>The stable update process (2)</h1>
+  <ul>
+    <li>
+      Maintainer sends pending changes to mailing list, original
+      authors, etc., for time-limited review and testing
+      <ul>
+       <li>
+         Fix might not be needed in a stable branch, or might not
+         work due to missing dependencies
+       </li>
+       <li>
+         Fix might have been found to introduce a regression in
+         mainline, so must wait until second fix available
+       </li>
+      </ul>
+    </li>
+    <li>
+      Maintainer drops/adds changes based on review, then applies
+      to stable branch and tags release
+    </li>
+    <li>
+      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
+      and other news media
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="slide">
+  <h1>Distributions and stable updates</h1>
+  <ul>
+    <li>
+      Package maintainers want to get bug fixes without waiting for
+      the next release - particularly for security
+    </li>
+    <li>
+      Maintainers report bugs upstream, find and sometimes write
+      fixes, and stable updates are a way to share these fixes across
+      distributions
       <ul>
        <li>
-         See
-         <a href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt"><tt>Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt</tt></a>
+         Are you doing this?  If not, what's stopping you?
        </li>
       </ul>
     </li>
+    <li>
+      Distribution stable releases have a much longer support period
+      than kernel release cycle, but updating to every new Linus
+      release is too risky
+    </li>
+    <li>
+      So the longterm stable branches are very important for most
+      distributions with stable releases
+    </li>
   </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>