Re: Kernel Version Explanation

[randy_dunlap <rdunlap@xenotime.net>]

On Sun, 29 May 2005 09:09:45 -0500 sean@capitalgenomix.com wrote:

| Would it be possible to get an explanation of the new kernel version
| format put onto the http://www.kernel.org website?  If it's there and
| I'm missing it, feel free to call me all kinds of silly names; but can
| you please send me a link?

Can you be more explicit in what you are looking for?

If you click on 'prepatch', 'snapshot', '-ac patch', and '-mm patch',
you can read some explanations.  What is missing there?


It looks to me like the word "stable" is overused on the main page
at www.kernel.org .  I would also prefer to see all of the 2.6.*
kernel versions together, above the 2.4.*, 2.2.*, and 2.0.* lines.



E.g. (however, this is too cluttered IMO; the prepatch/-ac/-mm
links do this well without the clutter):

The latest stable version of the Linux kernel is:  	2.6.11.11
The stable kernel patchset contains only critical and security patches
to the latest 2.6.x kernel.

The latest prepatch for the stable Linux kernel tree is:  	2.6.12-rc5
This is the mainline kernel where all new patches are added.
If they are not critical, they usually go thru the -mm patchset
before being merged here.  If they are critical, they may be
merged here first.

The latest -mm patch to the stable Linux kernels is:  	2.6.12-rc5-mm1 	
This is the development tree for 2.6 kernels.  Patches are
generally merged here for testing before being merged into
the mainline kernel tree.

The latest -ac patch to the stable Linux kernels is:  	2.6.11-ac7
(see the -ac patch explanation)


Thanks,
---
~Randy