Re: releng: how to follow NetBSD-6 STABLE branch

["J. Lewis Muir" <jlmuir%imca-cat.org@localhost>]

On 8/25/14, 1:50 PM, Greg Troxel wrote:
> Two points:
>
>   "alpha" is relative. netbsd-6 is an alpha of the next 6.Y formal
>   release.  It's less stable than the actual release, but still far
>   more stable than almost anything else.

Hi, Greg.

All right, but I still think most people think of "alpha" as pretty
rough.  Even in the NetBSD-current section of that same web page it
says, "You should be aware that in BSD CSRG terms, -current is normally
an alpha quality distribution. It isn't even guaranteed to compile."

>   People in general do not like to make stability claims, because
>   things will go wrong and then some people get cranky.  I was
>   speaking in terms of the past history (although I do expect it to
>   continue).

Understood.

> But it would be sensible to clarify the intent.  I think the www
> sources are available to all for checkout, so perhaps you could send a
> patch?

OK, attached is a patch.  (I cleaned up a few other things on that page
too; I hope that's OK.)

Regards,

Lewis

--- releases/release-map.xml.orig       2013-05-12 10:02:02.000000000 -0500
+++ releases/release-map.xml    2014-08-25 16:19:58.000000000 -0500
@@ -68,12 +68,13 @@
 of NetBSD.  This can either be in the form of a major release like
 <emphasis role="bold"><ulink url="formal-5/">5.0</ulink></emphasis>
 or <emphasis role="bold"><ulink url="formal-6/">6.0</ulink></emphasis>,
-of a <ulink url="#maintenance">maintenance (stable) release</ulink>
-such as <emphasis role="bold"><ulink
-url="formal-5/NetBSD-5.1.html">5.2</ulink></emphasis>, or a <ulink
-url="#security">security/critical release</ulink> like <emphasis
-role="bold"><ulink
-url="formal-5/NetBSD-5.1.2.html">5.1.3</ulink></emphasis>.
+of a <ulink url="#maintenance">minor release</ulink>
+(sometimes referred to as &quot;maintenance&quot; or
+&quot;stable&quot;) such as <emphasis role="bold"><ulink
+url="formal-5/NetBSD-5.2.html">5.2</ulink></emphasis>, or a <ulink
+url="#security">security/critical release</ulink> (sometimes
+referred to as &quot;teeny&quot;) like <emphasis role="bold"><ulink
+url="formal-5/NetBSD-5.1.3.html">5.1.3</ulink></emphasis>.
 
 </para>
 
@@ -151,15 +152,16 @@
 which will be going into the next minor release, pulled up from the
 NetBSD-current development branch.  For example, if the latest release
 is <emphasis role="bold">6.0</emphasis>, the CVS branch for it is
-&quot;netbsd-6&quot; which can be thought of as containing an alpha
-version of the following <emphasis role="bold">6.x</emphasis>
-releases.
+&quot;netbsd-6&quot; which will give rise to <emphasis
+role="bold">6.1</emphasis> and any following <emphasis
+role="bold">6.x</emphasis> releases.
 
 </para>
 
 <para>
 
-The security/critical branches only receive fixes for security
+What you will find on a <emphasis>security/critical</emphasis>
+branch is a major or minor release plus select fixes for security
 problems or other critical problems.  The aim is to provide such fixes
 but at the same time minimize the set of other changes which would
 otherwise get dragged in if one were to update along a stable branch.
@@ -173,21 +175,23 @@
 
 <para>
 
-The maintenance branch(es) can be considered an easy way to get the
-most up to date fixes for a given release.
+The maintenance branches can be considered an easy way to get the most
+up-to-date fixes for a given release.  Many users will be well-served
+following these branches.
 
 </para>
 
 <para>
 
-There are daily updated snapshots of the latest maintenance branches,
+There are daily updated snapshots of the latest stable branches,
 available via both CVS, FTP and SUP.  The directories <ulink
 
url="ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-6/";>pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-6/</ulink>
 and <ulink
-url="ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-5-0/";>pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-5-0/</ulink>
-contain the extracted sources plus weekly updated tar files of both
-the 6.0 and 5.0 release branches respectively.  These files are
-created in a similar manner to those in the <ulink
+url="ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-5/";>pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-5/</ulink>
+contain the extracted sources plus weekly updated tar files of both the
+&quot;netbsd-6&quot; and &quot;netbsd-5&quot; stable branches,
+respectively.  These files are created in a similar manner to those in
+the <ulink
 
url="ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/";>/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current</ulink>
 directory.