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diff --git a/doc/version_naming.html b/doc/version_naming.html deleted file mode 100644 index 3bfa19b..0000000 --- a/doc/version_naming.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,130 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> -<html><head><title>rsyslog version naming</title></head> -<body> -<h1>Version Naming</h1> -<p style="font-weight: bold;">This is the proposal on how versions should be named in the future:</p><p>Rsyslog version naming has undergone a number of changes in -the past. Our sincere hopes is that the scheme outlined here will serve -us well for the future. In general, a three-number versioning scheme -with a potential development state indication is used. It follows this -pattern:</p> -<p>major.minor.patchlevel[-devstate]</p> -<p>where devstate has some forther structure: --<releaseReason><releaseNumber></p> -<p>All stable builds come without the devstate part. All unstable -development version come with it.</p> -<p>The <span style="font-weight: bold;">major</span> -version is incremented whenever something really important happens. A -single new feature, even if important, does not justify an increase in -the major version. There is no hard rule when the major version needs -an increment. It mostly is a soft factor, when the developers and/or -the community think there has been sufficient change to justify that. -Major version increments are expected to happen quite infrequently, -maybe around once a year. A major version increment has important -implications from the support side: without support contracts, the -current major version's last stable release and the last stable release -of the version immediately below it are supported (Adiscon, the rsyslog -sponsor, offers <a href="professional_support.html">support contracts</a> covering all other versions).</p> -<p>The <span style="font-weight: bold;">minor</span> version is -incremented whenever a non-trivial new feature is planned to be added. -Triviality of a feature is simply determined by time estimated to -implement a feature. If that's more than a few days, it is considered a -non-trivial feature. Whenever a new minor version is begun, the desired -feature is identified and will be the primary focus of that major.minor -version. Trivial features may justify a new minor version if they -either do not look trivial from the user's point of view or change -something quite considerable (so we need to alert users). A minor -version increment may also be done for some other good reasons that the -developers have.</p> -<p>The <span style="font-weight: bold;">patchlevel</span> is incremented whenever there is a bugfix or very minor feature added to a (stable or development) release.</p><p>The <span style="font-weight: bold;">devstate</span> -is important during development of a feature. It helps the developers -to release versions with new features to the general public and in the -hope that this will result in some testing. To understand how it works, -we need to look at the release cycle: As already said, at the start of -a new minor version, a new non-trivial feature to be implemented in -that version is selected. Development on this feature begins. At the -current pace of development, getting initial support for such a -non-trivial feature typically takes between two and four weeks. During -this time, new feature requests come in. Also, we may find out that it -may be just the right time to implement some not yet targeted feature -requests. A reason for this is that the minor release's feature focus -is easier to implement if the other feature is implemented first. This -is a quite common thing to happen. So development on the primary focus -may hold for a short period while we implement something else. Even -unrelated, but very trivial feature requests (maybe an hour's worth of -time to implement), may be done in between. Once we have implemented -these things, we would like to release as quickly as possible (even -more if someone has asked for the feature). So we do not like to wait -for the original focus feature to be ready (what could take maybe three -more weeks). As a result, we release the new features. But that version -will also include partial code of the focus feature. Typically this -doesn't hurt as long as noone tries to use it (what of course would -miserably fail). But still, part of the new code is already in it. When -we release such a "minor-feature enhanced" but "focus-feature not yet -completed" version, we need a way to flag it. In current thinking, that -is using a "<span style="font-weight: bold;">-mf<version></span>" <span style="font-weight: bold;">devstate</span> -in the version number ("mf" stands for "minor feature"). Version -numbers for -mf releases start at 0 for the first release and are -monotonically incremented. Once the focus feature has been fully -implemented, a new version now actually supporting that feature will be -released. Now, the release reason is changed to the well-know "<span style="font-weight: bold;">-rc<version></span>" -where "rc" stands for release candidate. For the first release -candidate, the version starts at 0 again and is incremented -monotonically for each subsequent release. Please note that a -rc0 may -only have bare functionality but later -rc's have a richer one. If new -minor features are implemented and released once we have reached rc -stage, still a new rc version is issued. The difference between "mf" -and "rc" is simply the presence of the desired feature. No support is -provided for -mf versions once the first -rc version has been released. -And only the most current -rc version is supported.</p><p>The -rc is -removed and the version declared stable when we think it has undergone -sufficient testing and look sufficiently well. Then, it'll turn into a -stable release. Stable minor releases never receive non-trivial new -features. There may be more than one -rc releases without a stable -release present at the same time. In fact, most often we will work on -the next minor development version while the previous minor version is -still a -rc because it is not yet considered sufficiently stable.</p><p>Note: <span style="font-weight: bold;">the -absence of the -devstate part indicates that a release is stable. -Following the same logic, any release with a -devstate part is unstable.</span></p><p>A quick sample: </p><p>4.0.0 -is the stable release. We begin to implement relp, moving to -major.minor to 4.1. While we develop it, someone requests a trivial -feature, which we implement. We need to release, so we will have -4.1.0-mf0. Another new feature is requested, move to 4.1.0-mf2. A first -version of RELP is implemented: 4.1.0-rc0. A new trivial feature is -implemented: 4.1.0-rc1. Relp is being enhanced: 4.1.0-rc2. We now feel -RELP is good enough for the time being and begin to implement TLS on -plain /Tcp syslog: logical increment to 4.2. Now another new feature in -that tree: 4.2.0-mf0. Note that we now have 4.0.0 (stable) and -4.1.0-rc2 and 4.1.0-mf0 (both devel). We find a big bug in RELP coding. -Two new releases: 4.1.0-rc3, 4.2.0-mf1 (the bug fix acts like a -non-focus feature change). We release TLS: 4.2.0-rc0. Another RELP bug -fix 4.1.0-rc4, 4.2.0-rc1. After a while, RELP is matured: 4.1.0 -(stable). Now support for 4.0.x stable ends. It, however, is still -provided for 3.x.x (in the actual case 2.x.x, because v3 was under the -old naming scheme and now stable v3 was ever released).</p><p style="font-weight: bold;">This is how it is done so far:</p><p>This document briefly outlines the strategy for naming -versions. It applies to versions 1.0.0 and above. Versions below that -are all unstable and have a different naming schema.</p> -<p><b>Please note that version naming is currently being -changed. There is a -<a href="http://blog.gerhards.net/2007/08/on-rsyslog-versions.html">blog -post about future rsyslog versions</a>.</b></p> -<p>The major version is incremented whenever a considerate, major -features have been added. This is expected to happen quite infrequently.</p> -<p>The minor version number is incremented whenever there is -"sufficient need" (at the discretion of the developers). There is a -notable difference between stable and unstable branches. The <b>stable -branch</b> always has a minor version number in the range from 0 -to 9. It is expected that the stable branch will receive bug and -security fixes only. So the range of minor version numbers should be -quite sufficient.</p> -<p>For the <b>unstable branch</b>, minor version -numbers always start at 10 and are incremented as needed (again, at the -discretion of the developers). Here, new minor versions include both -fixes as well as new features (hopefully most of the time). They are -expected to be released quite often.</p> -<p>The patch level (third number) is incremented whenever a -really minor thing must be added to an existing version. This is -expected to happen quite infrequently.</p> -<p>In general, the unstable branch carries all new development. -Once it concludes with a sufficiently-enhanced, quite stable version, a -new major stable version is assigned.</p> -</body></html> |