CURRENT vs. STABLE vs. RELEASE, tags and branches [was: Re: That age old question again]

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2008-03-17 09:18, Robert Chalmers <robert.a.chalmers at gmail.com> wrote:
> Not quite but close.
> On the front page of FreeBSD.org, is the download links for
> LATEST RELEASES
>   a.. Production Release 7.0
> Which I'm assuming is the latest, and commercially useable version.
>
> Now I still find the situation of CURRENT, STABLE as they relate to RELEASE
> slightly confusing, and no amount of description seems to clear it up.
>
> Ok, I understand CURRENT is developmental, and becomes the next major
> version as stated below. So the next major version is the one on the
> website? Release 7.0 - or, 7.0-RELEASE ...yes/no?
>
> Then 7.0-STABLE continues the work to be the bugfix/security blah blah tree.
>
> The question I have is:  For the Production Release shown above -
> 7.0-RELEASE, what is the cvsup tag to keep this version updated ??

Hi Robert,

After the 7.0-RELEASE was announced the following CVS tags became
available for general use:

    RELENG_7_0_0_RELEASE

        This is a 'snapshot' of the source tree at the time of the
        release.  No bug fixes are possible in a 'snapshot' tag.  It is
        just a reference point, which can be used to reconstruct a copy
        of the source tree used to build 7.0-RELEASE.

    RELENG_7_0

        This is a 'branch' that includes all the source files of the
        release snapshot and *security* fixes only.  Being a 'branch'
        this is not a static snapshot.  It may 'move' in time, pointing
        to newer updates for some files.  Since it is a security-only
        branch, however, updates are expected to be minimal and are
        announced in freebsd-security as they become available.

    RELENG_7

        This is a branch too.  It includes all development of the
        7-STABLE series.  Created at the same point as the release tag
        called RELENG_7_0_0_RELEASE, this is the basis for all the
        subsequent releases 'cut from the 7.X series'.  The changes
        which are allowed to go into this branch are a lot more than
        `RELENG_7_0', its associated security branch.  New userland
        features, documentation updates, even new utilities or entirely
        new kernel features are all allowed, as long as compatibility
        with previous 7.X releases is not compromised.

If you haven't read them already, the following two links are probably
going to be useful:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/version-guide/
http://www.freebsd.org/security/security.html#supported-branches