docs/92829: [patch] Update FAQ introduction for 6.X releases
Alec Berryman
alec at thened.net
Sun Feb 5 00:30:16 UTC 2006
>Number: 92829
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: [patch] Update FAQ introduction for 6.X releases
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: doc-bug
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Sun Feb 05 00:30:15 GMT 2006
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Alec Berryman
>Release: FreeBSD 6.0-STABLE i386
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD shredder.bowdoin.edu 6.0-STABLE FreeBSD 6.0-STABLE #0: Sat Jan 21 01:26:30 EST 2006 root at shredder.bowdoin.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/SERVER i386
>Description:
The FAQ introduction is badly out of date for recent releases. The
attached diff deemphasizes the 4.X branch, notes the 5.X branch is
still actively supported and improved but at a slower rate, and marks
6.X as the preferred -STABLE branch to which most merges from -CURRENT
are being made.
While I am here, change a quote escape into a proper quote tag and
try to normalize use of expansions where appropriate.
book.sgml passes 'make lint' with the attached patch. Feedback
appreciated.
>How-To-Repeat:
>Fix:
--- what-is-freebsd-stable.diff begins here ---
Index: book.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/ncvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.773
diff -u -r1.773 book.sgml
--- book.sgml 12 Jan 2006 19:14:15 -0000 1.773
+++ book.sgml 5 Feb 2006 00:15:45 -0000
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
<year>2003</year>
<year>2004</year>
<year>2005</year>
+ <year>2006</year>
<holder>The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder>
</copyright>
@@ -286,32 +287,28 @@
<answer>
<para>At this point in FreeBSD's development, there are three
parallel development branches; releases are being made from
- two of the three branches. The 4.X series of releases
- is being made from the <emphasis>4-STABLE</emphasis> branch
- and the 5.X series of releases is being made from
- <emphasis>5-STABLE</emphasis>. It will be some time in
- mid-to-late 2005 before the first release will be made from the
- <emphasis>6-CURRENT</emphasis> branch; that release (6.0)
- will be aimed at early adopters.</para>
+ two of the three branches. The 5.X series of releases
+ is being made from the <emphasis>5-STABLE</emphasis> branch
+ and the 6.X series of releases from <emphasis>6-STABLE</emphasis>.
<para>Up until the release of 5.3, the 4.X series was the
one known as <emphasis>-STABLE</emphasis>. However,
- as of 5.3, 5.X has been designated the new
- <emphasis>-STABLE</emphasis> and 4.X will no longer see
- much new development. Instead, it will be designated
- for an "extended support" status and receive
- only fixes for major problems (such as security-related
- fixes.)</para>
+ as of 5.3, the 4.X branch will be designated for
+ an <quote>extended support</quote> status and receive
+ only fixes for major problems, such as security-related
+ fixes. There will be more releases made from the
+ <emphasis>5-STABLE</emphasis> branch, but it is considered
+ a <quote>legacy</quote> branch and most current work will
+ only become a part of <emphasis>6-STABLE</emphasis>.
-<!-- note: the entity definitions are out of date -->
<para>Version <ulink
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/&rel.current;-RELEASE/">&rel.current;</ulink>
is the latest release from the
- <emphasis>5-STABLE</emphasis> branch; it was released in
+ <emphasis>&rel.current;-STABLE</emphasis> branch; it was released in
&rel.current.date;. Version <ulink
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/&rel2.current;-RELEASE/">&rel2.current;</ulink>
is the latest release from the
- <emphasis>4-STABLE</emphasis> branch; it was released in
+ <emphasis>&rel2.current;-STABLE</emphasis> branch; it was released in
&rel2.current.date;.</para>
<para>Briefly, <emphasis>-STABLE</emphasis> is aimed at the
@@ -327,8 +324,8 @@
<para>Releases are made <link linkend="release-freq">every
few months</link>. While many people stay more up-to-date with
the FreeBSD sources (see the questions on <link
- linkend="current">FreeBSD-CURRENT</link> and <link
- linkend="stable">FreeBSD-STABLE</link>) than that, doing so
+ linkend="current">&os.current;</link> and <link
+ linkend="stable">&os.stable;</link>) than that, doing so
is more of a commitment, as the sources are a moving
target.</para>
@@ -346,7 +343,7 @@
<answer>
<para><ulink
- url="&url.books.handbook;/cutting-edge.html#CURRENT">FreeBSD-CURRENT</ulink>
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/cutting-edge.html#CURRENT">&os.current;</ulink>
is the development version of the operating system, which
will in due course become the new &os.stable; branch.
As such, it is
@@ -360,9 +357,9 @@
<para>If you are not familiar with the operating system or are
not capable of identifying the difference between a real
problem and a temporary problem, you should not use
- FreeBSD-CURRENT. This branch sometimes evolves quite quickly
+ &os.current;. This branch sometimes evolves quite quickly
and can be un-buildable for a number of days at a time.
- People that use FreeBSD-CURRENT are expected to be able to
+ People that use &os.current; are expected to be able to
analyze any problems and only report them if they are deemed
to be mistakes rather than <quote>glitches</quote>. Questions
such as <quote>make world produces some error about
@@ -435,9 +432,9 @@
only well-tested bug fixes and other small incremental
enhancements. FreeBSD-CURRENT, on the other hand, has
been one unbroken line since 2.0 was released, leading
- towards 5.3-RELEASE (and beyond). Just before 5.3-RELEASE, the
- 5-STABLE branch was created, and
- &os.current; became 6-CURRENT. For more detailed information,
+ towards 6.0-RELEASE and beyond. Just before 6.0-RELEASE, the
+ 6-STABLE branch was created, and
+ &os.current; became 7-CURRENT. For more detailed information,
see <quote><ulink url="&url.articles.releng;/release-proc.html#REL-BRANCH">
FreeBSD Release Engineering:
Creating the Release Branch</ulink></quote>.</para>
@@ -446,17 +443,17 @@
The 3-STABLE branch has ended with the release of 3.5.1, the
final 3.X release. The only changes made to either of these
branches will be, for the most part, security-related bug
- fixes. Support for the 4-STABLE branch will continue
- for some time but focus primarily on security-related bug
- fixes and other serious issues.</para>
+ fixes. Support for the 4-STABLE and 5-STABLE branches will
+ continue for some time but focus primarily on security-related
+ bug fixes and other serious issues.</para>
- <para>5-STABLE is the actively developed -STABLE branch.
- The latest release on the 5-STABLE branch is
+ <para>&rel.current;-STABLE is the actively developed -STABLE branch.
+ The latest release on the &rel.current;-STABLE branch is
&rel.current;-RELEASE, which was released in
&rel.current.date;.</para>
- <para>The 6-CURRENT branch is the actively developed
- -CURRENT branch toward the next generation of &os;.
+ <para>The 7-CURRENT branch is the actively developed
+ -CURRENT branch toward the next generation of &os;.
See <link linkend="current">What is &os;-CURRENT?</link> for more
information on this branch.</para>
</answer>
--- what-is-freebsd-stable.diff ends here ---
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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