Change of policy for future 2.2 driver submissions
In other words, there's no longer any such thing as a "stable" branch. The whole point of having separate production and development branches was to have one in which each succeeding patch could be counted upon to be more reliable than the last. If new development is going into the "stable" kernels, then there's no way to be certain that the latest patches don't have more bugs than the earlier ones, at least not without thoroughly testing them. And if testing is necessary, then we might as well just use the development kernels for everything, because we have to test them anyway.
Wayne
Daniel Phillips <[email protected]> on 01/05/2001 06:52:00 AM
To: Mark Hahn <[email protected]>,
[email protected]
cc: (bcc: Wayne Brown/Corporate/Altec)
Subject: Re: Change of policy for future 2.2 driver submissions
Quoted 9 lines · Mark Hahn
Quoted 1 line
I personaly do not trust the 2.4.x kernel entirely yet, and would prefer to
...
Quoted 1 line
afraid that this may partialy criple 2.2 driver development.
egads! how can there be "development" on a *stable* kernel line?
maybe this is the time to reconsider terminology/policy:
does "stable" mean "bugfixes only"?
or does it mean "development kernel for conservatives"?
It means development kernel for those who don't have enough time to debug the main kernel as well as their own project. The stable branch tends to be *far* better documented than the bleeding edge branch. Try to find documentation on the all-important page cache, for example. It makes a whole lot of sense to develop in the stable branch, especially for new kernel developers, providing, of course, that the stable branch has the basic capabilities you need for your project.
Alan isn't telling anybody which branch to develop in - he's telling people what they have to do if they want their code in his tree. This means that when you develop in the stable branch you've got an extra step to do at the end of your project: port to the unstable branch. This only has to be done once and your code *will* get cleaned up a lot in the process. (It's amazing how the prospect of merging 500 lines of rejected patch tends to concentrate the mind.) I'd even suggest another step after that: port your unstable version back to the stable branch, and both versions will be cleaned up.
--
Daniel
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Quoted 3 lines
In other words, there's no longer any such thing as a "stable" branch. The whole point of having separate production and development branches was to have one in which each succeeding patch could be counted upon to be more reliable
By your personal definition of stable 2.0.3x is the current stable kernel.
Alan
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Quoted 5 lines · In article <[email protected]> you wrote:
Quoted 3 lines
In other words, there's no longer any such thing as a "stable" branch. The whole point of having separate production and development branches was to have one in which each succeeding patch could be counted upon to be more reliable
By your personal definition of stable 2.0.3x is the current stable kernel.
Btw: Any chance to see an official 2.0.39 soon?
2.0.39final is out for about half a year now...
Christoph
Signature · 5 lines
Whip me. Beat me. Make me maintain AIX. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [email protected] Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Quoted 4 lines
Quoted 1 line
By your personal definition of stable 2.0.3x is the current stable kernel.
Btw: Any chance to see an official 2.0.39 soon?
2.0.39final is out for about half a year now...
David sent me one thing to look at before he's happy. So right now Im the guilty party holding it up. Hopefulyl a day or two
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