On Thu, 20 Apr 2000, Richard Braakman wrote: > On Thu, Apr 20, 2000 at 12:33:33AM +0200, J.A. Bezemer wrote: > > ATTN ftpmasters: > > > > To be perfectly clear: contrary to the Subject: line, 2.1r6 should _not_ be > > released right after the included "wishlist" has been processed. > > > > According to release procedures we're currently trying out, the > > "Debian2.1r6" > > symlink and the entry in the global ChangeLog should be made _only_ when > > you're explicitly asked to do so (i.e. after CD images have been > > successfully > > made, which will take a week or so). > > And have slink change silently and unannounced? I think not. > We don't do that.
I think you're misunderstanding me. Of course the global ChangeLog should be updated with information on upgrades of individual packages; the only thing that has to wait a while is the "--- Debian 2.1 r6 is released.\n`date`" line (and the symlink -- the presence of which I can't really understand anyway) The fundamental reason for this is simple: we do not know if everything needed for r6 has been done yet! And we _can't_ know until everything we _do_ know has actually been done. Look at it in another way: what we're basically trying to do is implementing a mini version of your own "release cycles" for the stable branch. Just because `stable' has _shown_ itself to become slightly UNstable with every subrelease, needing patches-to-patch-old-patches in the next subrelease. This always was about 1 or 2 packages. This time, we'll allow them (if any) to be fixed _before_ the actual release is announced, which increases the quality of the end product. There will be _no_ "silent and unannounced" changes; the individual ChangeLog entries will be there for anyone to check, but the official announcements will just appear slightly later. Looking at past events, that shouldn't be any problem: there is (still!) no r5-is-released entry in the global ChangeLog, IIRC there has never been an r3 symlink, and r2 never had an announcement/press release. Even better: this time, the announcements can also mention the availability of CD images -- which hasn't been possible for any earlier release. Which stresses an important point: the Debian distribution isn't anymore only about FTP archives, but CDs are becoming increasingly important. This is taken care for nicely with the potato test cycles, but as soon as `stable' things are concerned CDs seem to be forgotten... Regards, Anne Bezemer
