Re: Current LTS and their EOL

[Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Sat, Aug 18, 2018 at 07:52:58PM +0100, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> On Fri, 2018-08-17 at 23:48 +0100, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Fri, Aug 17, 2018 at 08:40:06AM -0700, Rodrigo Vivi wrote:
> > > Hi Greg, Ben, and all
> > > 
> > > Is https://www.kernel.org/category/releases.html updated in terms of EOL?
> > 
> > As of right now, for the kernels I maintain, yes, it is correct.
> > 
> > > Some news out of Linaro conference [2] generated a lot of doubts and questions
> > > around.
> > > 
> > > Specially because on the way it was stated by the news 3.16 wouldn't be active
> > > anymore. So I'm not sure about the news, but I'd like confirmation from you about
> > > expected EOL.
> > 
> > Linaro has nothing to do with the 3.16 kernel, so why are you confusing
> > that with what was announced at that conference, which was about the 4.4
> > kernel tree?
> 
> The article says that other longterm branches are only supported for 2
> years - which has been your usual practice, but obviously doesn't
> reflect what all stable maintainers have done.
> 
> I try to ensure that every stable branch used in a Debian release is
> maintained for the lifetime of that Debian release.  That means 5-6
> years after the initial release of the kernel version.  So far that has
> included 2.6.32 (maintained by Willy Tarreau), 3.2 and 3.16 (maintained
> by me).
> 
> In the latest release we used Linux 4.9 which currently has a stated
> EOL of 2019.  But I'm prepared to take on maintenance from that point
> until June 2022.  Greg, is that OK with you and should the EOL be
> updated on that basis?

Thanks a lot for the offer, but I can handle 4.9 until 2023 now, and
I've updated kernel.org with the new dates to reflect this.  I can
always use help though, if you want to make sure I don't miss any
patches that Debian specifically needs.

thanks,

greg k-h