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Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:51:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: from archie.me ([103.124.138.155]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id d2e1a72fcca58-7760793b5fasm6938008b3a.16.2025.09.12.18.51.55 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256/256); Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:51:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: by archie.me (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 67ECB4206928; Sat, 13 Sep 2025 08:51:53 +0700 (WIB) From: Bagas Sanjaya To: Linux Kernel Mailing List , Linux Documentation , Linux Kernel Workflows Cc: Jonathan Corbet , Dante Strock , Randy Dunlap , Bagas Sanjaya Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: process: Do not hardcode kernel major version number Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2025 08:51:47 +0700 Message-ID: <20250913015147.9544-1-bagasdotme@gmail.com> X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.51.0 Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: workflows@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Developer-Signature: v=1; a=openpgp-sha256; l=4599; i=bagasdotme@gmail.com; h=from:subject; bh=Bd3xa7qvg0cHicpoRmkRiHMwF02modqhnATszvtaJmI=; b=owGbwMvMwCX2bWenZ2ig32LG02pJDBlHzk7+lymaMcv69L4ruVXbLwpFq5y4y2gdNP1Z4fGzW kmLDzrO7ihlYRDjYpAVU2SZlMjXdHqXkciF9rWOMHNYmUCGMHBxCsBEHvoyMvxZNyP7iNaRZm0F cf9r1hIzV55R3cguFbD/k5LRuYLvV28wMpz8um5L+Ds1oZTXzUX7lp79Z8zXuSvJ4det9fed3jx kP8gIAA== X-Developer-Key: i=bagasdotme@gmail.com; a=openpgp; fpr=701B806FDCA5D3A58FFB8F7D7C276C64A5E44A1D Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit The big picture section of 2.Process.rst currently hardcodes major version number to 5 since fb0e0ffe7fc8e0 ("Documentation: bring process docs up to date"). As it can get outdated when it is actually incremented (the recent is 6 and will be 7 in the near future), replace it with the placeholder. Note that the version number examples are kept to illustrate the numbering scheme. Signed-off-by: Bagas Sanjaya --- Documentation/process/2.Process.rst | 40 ++++++++++++----------------- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst b/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst index ef3b116492df08..668d5559ded039 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/2.Process.rst @@ -13,24 +13,18 @@ how the process works is required in order to be an effective part of it. The big picture --------------- -The kernel developers use a loosely time-based release process, with a new -major kernel release happening every two or three months. The recent -release history looks like this: +Linux kernel uses a loosely time-based, rolling release development model. +A new major kernel release (a.x) [1]_ happens every two or three monts, which +comes with new features, internal API changes, and more. A typical release +can contain about 13,000 changesets with changes to several hundred thousand +lines of code. Recent releases, along with their dates, can be found at +`Wikipedia `_. - ====== ================= - 5.0 March 3, 2019 - 5.1 May 5, 2019 - 5.2 July 7, 2019 - 5.3 September 15, 2019 - 5.4 November 24, 2019 - 5.5 January 6, 2020 - ====== ================= - -Every 5.x release is a major kernel release with new features, internal -API changes, and more. A typical release can contain about 13,000 -changesets with changes to several hundred thousand lines of code. 5.x is -the leading edge of Linux kernel development; the kernel uses a -rolling development model which is continually integrating major changes. +.. [1] Strictly speaking, Linux kernel do not use semantic versioning + number scheme, but rather a.x pair identifies major release + version as a whole number. For each release, x is incremented, + but a is incremented only if x is deemed large enough (e.g. + Linux 5.0 is released following Linux 4.20). A relatively straightforward discipline is followed with regard to the merging of patches for each release. At the beginning of each development @@ -48,9 +42,9 @@ detail later on). The merge window lasts for approximately two weeks. At the end of this time, Linus Torvalds will declare that the window is closed and release the -first of the "rc" kernels. For the kernel which is destined to be 5.6, +first of the "rc" kernels. For the kernel which is destined to be a.x, for example, the release which happens at the end of the merge window will -be called 5.6-rc1. The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to +be called a.x-rc1. The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to merge new features has passed, and that the time to stabilize the next kernel has begun. @@ -99,13 +93,13 @@ release is made. In the real world, this kind of perfection is hard to achieve; there are just too many variables in a project of this size. There comes a point where delaying the final release just makes the problem worse; the pile of changes waiting for the next merge window will grow -larger, creating even more regressions the next time around. So most 5.x -kernels go out with a handful of known regressions though, hopefully, none -of them are serious. +larger, creating even more regressions the next time around. So most kernels +go out with a handful of known regressions though, hopefully, none of them +are serious. Once a stable release is made, its ongoing maintenance is passed off to the "stable team," currently Greg Kroah-Hartman. The stable team will release -occasional updates to the stable release using the 5.x.y numbering scheme. +occasional updates to the stable release using the a.x.y numbering scheme. To be considered for an update release, a patch must (1) fix a significant bug, and (2) already be merged into the mainline for the next development kernel. Kernels will typically receive stable updates for a little more base-commit: f44a29784f685804d9970cfb0d3439c9e30981d7 -- An old man doll... just what I always wanted! - Clara