From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from ms.lwn.net (ms.lwn.net [45.79.88.28]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 54F3E285C98; Tue, 16 Sep 2025 16:07:18 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=45.79.88.28 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1758038839; cv=none; b=NQ0DaTVqaHN4FAt6wwYqKXDi0FsBAZ5ybywdvxy8S4Y27Bfn5dwmZafWkv6igTze+mFPuqAYJUkGOFfxeimAlf84Xg2kZ+ypT4JR6nMAXxaZgl+Fft6I6PYCe7SDsV23Lyple2aH9lW9l8AkODaX0qtfbEu0AK+Fwx7Eqmg2574= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1758038839; c=relaxed/simple; bh=kMJqNMCJNOVmtXLnOBtOnyQmmRYIqBImTttfwm1qHvE=; h=From:To:Cc:Subject:In-Reply-To:References:Date:Message-ID: MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=Uih0cELbXswoPYnwkABdGGclGJs/wc0rHmJh8Au4bWR3I7QRQIQKgItw30f4XdOnxWJwknjdaby2S9dwBHq4y08184Elv15rJ+mY3Yljh1Xi2YdAgdsJInqow9P+R/CbirhoiSmH1k3ygEjqJhJNSDbbmW0GhgoGNWLgdJ96m44= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=lwn.net; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=lwn.net; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=lwn.net header.i=@lwn.net header.b=Prnrg91n; arc=none smtp.client-ip=45.79.88.28 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=lwn.net Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=lwn.net Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=lwn.net header.i=@lwn.net header.b="Prnrg91n" DKIM-Filter: OpenDKIM Filter v2.11.0 ms.lwn.net 5119140ADA DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=lwn.net; s=20201203; t=1758038837; bh=NSZkUbt1a8rV14ly3m5h7t1U10pewL0kns7Nz8f3xVs=; h=From:To:Cc:Subject:In-Reply-To:References:Date:From; b=Prnrg91nrzCwhi/XheSDRiWhldfBwlIdZ4ppB53h7Z4dMvcPNR6HjxBX3SxOpgI82 Gh/z/AS22cb9XGeNmCjGq2zvrSn17v7TCOjk8aIwksvxjraX2UR+kvHsfrM6GI1oho y/Pa6i6LoRcqdQBBefTrQMjH7+8PCVUedXcJqELcG5Nuae+PiC7/4v0mM7grHFPP3X rZAUC9XL6Vu5bHokTLg8eve5hdU6jYd3WvnJ4C0IZ2zGWDOoxJtykirZN+evbyvtQi wB26CeLEa9375thWKXzkCvOG09utby2GRh0IPpSA1aFjnR2ZrXTyNulM3oJUNc9pE0 9C/GwDD07eSSA== Received: from localhost (unknown [IPv6:2601:280:4600:2da9::1fe]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) server-digest SHA256) (No client certificate requested) by ms.lwn.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 5119140ADA; Tue, 16 Sep 2025 16:07:17 +0000 (UTC) From: Jonathan Corbet To: Bagas Sanjaya , Linux Kernel Mailing List , Linux Documentation , Linux Kernel Workflows Cc: Dante Strock , Randy Dunlap , Bagas Sanjaya Subject: Re: [PATCH] Documentation: process: Do not hardcode kernel major version number In-Reply-To: <20250913015147.9544-1-bagasdotme@gmail.com> References: <20250913015147.9544-1-bagasdotme@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2025 10:07:16 -0600 Message-ID: <87tt12e5zf.fsf@trenco.lwn.net> Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: workflows@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Bagas Sanjaya writes: > 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 `_. I have to admit that I'm not at all convinced that this change brings clarity to the document; using real numbers grounds the text in a way that "a.x" does not. If we really think it's embarrassing to still say "5.whatever" here, perhaps we should just change it to "9.whatever" and be good for a long time? Thanks, jon