version number of Linux kernel development

Hi,
I got a question regarding to Linux's version number. According to some talk from Greg KH, there would be an accompanying stable release along with every -rc release, that is, something like this:

         4.2.0
          |       \
    4.3.1-rc    4.2.1
          |        |
    4.3.2-rc     4.2.2
          |        |
    4.3.3-rc     4.2.3
          |        |
    4.3.4-rc     4.2.4
          |        |
    4.3.5-rc     4.2.5
          |        |
    4.3.6-rc     4.2.6
          |        |
    4.3.7-rc     4.2.7   <- this branch is thrown away after 4.4.0 is released
          |
    4.4.0

So, in this example, 4.2.7 would be thrown away after 4.4.0 is released. Is this the same for every major release?

I see a series of 4.4.x release, ranging from 4.4.1 ~ 4.4.49,@
http://elixir.free-electrons.com/linux/latest/source
which really confused me. Accoding to the model above, there should be only 4.4.7. After that, it would 4.5.x.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks,
Yubin

Look at https://www.kernel.org/

there are "longterm" branches, they are developed until EOL (end-of-life)

for example, there is now 4.4.79 branch

as i see this, some branches are selected to be "longterm", and they get the same set patches

Best regards,
Kamil Konieczny
Samsung R&D Institute Poland

Hi,

see also https://www.kernel.org/category/releases.html

Best regards,
Kamil Konieczny
Samsung R&D Institute Poland