Where to get 5.3 Stable

[Robert Watson]

On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 freebsd-stable at auscert.org.au wrote:

> > Shogan2k1 at aol.com writes:
> > > Everyone keep on saying they have problem running 5.3 stable. But is
> > > 5.3 stable really out? I can't find it anywhere.
> > 
> > 5.3-RELEASE isn't out yet, but you can get 5.3-STABLE by cvsup'ing
> > the RELENG_5 tag.
> 
> As RELENG_5_3 has been branched, I have been tracking this release - I
> presume this is the same as RELENG_5 until 5.3 RELEASE is frozen
> (already?), but will then only change for security patches. (Someone
> please correct me if this is an incorrect assumption)

With the advent of 5.3, the intent is to expand the coverage of changes in
the RELENG_MAJOR_MINOR branch to include critical other fixes in addition
to the normal security fixes going into the branch.  For example, if there
is a critical stability fix for a driver or other system component.  We
also intend to adopt this approach for future 4.x releases.  The bar will
be high for changes to go into the branch, and will result in errata
announcements (exact format to be determined) in much the same way we
currently produce security advisories.  The branch will remain "owned" by
the security officer team, and any stability fixes will be merged by the
release engineering team in close coordination with the security officer
team.  It is not the intent that the branches become "-STABLE" 
substitutes, since they won't be getting feature enhancements.

Robert N M Watson             FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert at fledge.watson.org      Principal Research Scientist, McAfee Research