Re: NetBSD HEAD 5-1

["Gerard Lally" <gerard%netmail.ie@localhost>]

On Mon, 05 Sep 2011 07:20 +0200, "Ian D. Leroux" 
<idleroux%fastmail.fm@localhost>
wrote:
> Quoting Gerard Lally <gerard%netmail.ie@localhost> (Mon, 5 Sep 2011 02:06:41
> +0100):
> > On Sun, 4 Sep 2011 17:22:02 +0200 Manuel Bouyer
> > <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost> wrote:
> > > That is the netbsd-5 branch. I think Gerard asked about the
> > > netbsd-5-1 branch.
> > > Yes, netbsd-5-1 is the 5-1 formal RELEASE plus critical fixes.
> > > netbsd-5 is the 5-1 formal RELEASE plus critical fixes plus not so
> > > critical fixes, plus some features (like newer hardware support).
> > 
> > Now I'm confused again!
> 
> The graphic at http://www.netbsd.org/releases/release-map.html may be
> helpful.
> 
> > If I go to netbsd-5-1 at NetBSD-daily and then for example to the
> > amd64 ISO for 201109030130Z am I downloading 1) the 5-1 formal RELEASE
> > plus critical fixes
> 
> Yes.  Reread Manuel Bouyer's excerpted paragraph above.
> 
> > or 2) the 5-1 formal RELEASE plus critical fixes
> > plus not so critical fixes, plus some features like newer hardware
> > support?
> 
> No.  That would be in netbsd-5.
> 
> To reiterate:
> - Security/critical, named after a minor release (e.g. netbsd-5-1) only
>   get critical fixes to that release.  These are as stable (in the
>   sense of unchanging and predictable) as you can get while still
>   getting security fixes. These are branches off of ...
> - Stable branches, named after a major release (e.g. netbsd-5).  Stable
>   branches also get low-risk upgrades and feature additions.  If you
>   follow netbsd-5 your system will track development from 5.1 to 5.2 to
>   5.3 and so on until the branch is deprecated. The stable branches, in
>   turn, are forked from ...
> - HEAD, aka current: Bleeding edge, big new features, disruptive changes
>   (though actually quite stable in practise).  This is the branch
>   wending its way from what was NetBSD-5.0 to what will be NetBSD-6.0


Thank you very much Ian. It is all clear to me now.

(I am also very glad to hear how stable -current is. There are
definitely features like LVM and possibly NPF I am interested in.)