Re: 2.6.19 -mm merge plans

From: Jeff Garzik
Date: Thu Sep 21 2006 - 14:22:04 EST


Andrew Morton wrote:
Jeff: "I want faster release cycles because <no reason given>"

All the standard goodness that "release early, release often" provides.

* Avoiding the achingly long wait where huge amounts of changes pile up, then go in. It should be OBVIOUS that
merge 10,000 changes. global test. repeat
is worse than
merge 1,000 changes. global test. repeat.

I think it's patently unfair to complain about bugs and regressions, then limit developers to 3-4 test points [mainline releases] per year.

* Faster release cycles means code doesn't spend a quarter of the year in limbo before users test it and give good feedback.

* Code stands a better chance of getting more review.

* Regressions are perceived to be fixed more quickly, if the fix requires more than just 1-2 lines going to stable@xxxxxxxxxxx

* Submitters don't have to wait for a quarter of a year in order for their submissions to hit a mainline release.

With this last release, I just didn't see the value at all to going all the way to -rc7. There weren't huge numbers of testers screaming about -rc1 and -rc2. It just seemed like we delayed for no good reason other than a blind hope that the passage of time would fix bugs.

Jeff


-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/