shorewall_code/docs/ReleaseModel.xml

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  <articleinfo>
    <title>Shorewall Release Model</title>

    <authorgroup>
      <author>
        <firstname>Tom</firstname>

        <surname>Eastep</surname>
      </author>
    </authorgroup>

    <pubdate><?dbtimestamp format="Y/m/d"?></pubdate>

    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year>

      <year>2005</year>

      <year>2006</year>

      <year>2007</year>

      <holder>Thomas M. Eastep</holder>
    </copyright>

    <legalnotice>
      <para>Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
      document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version
      1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with
      no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover, and with no Back-Cover
      Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
      <quote><ulink url="GnuCopyright.htm">GNU Free Documentation
      License</ulink></quote>.</para>
    </legalnotice>
  </articleinfo>

  <section id="Releases">
    <title>Shorewall Releases</title>

    <orderedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Releases have a three-level identification
        <firstterm>x.y.z</firstterm> (e.g., 2.0.3).</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>The first two levels (<emphasis>x.y</emphasis>) designate the
        <firstterm>Major Release Number</firstterm> (e.g., 2.0).</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>The third level (<emphasis>z</emphasis>) designates the
        <firstterm>Minor Release Number</firstterm>.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Even numbered major releases (e.g., 1.4, 2.0, 2.2, ...) are
        <firstterm>Stable Releases</firstterm>. No major new features are
        added to stable releases and new minor releases of a stable release
        will only contain bug fixes and simple low-risk enhancements.
        Installing a new minor release for the major release that you are
        currently running involves no migration issues unless you want to take
        advantage of an enhancement (for example, if you are running 1.4.10
        and I release 1.4.11, your current configuration is 100% compatible
        with the new release).</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Support is available through the <ulink
        url="http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=22587">Mailing List</ulink>
        for the two most recent Stable Releases.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Odd numbered major releases (e.g., 2.1, 2.3, ...) are
        <firstterm>Development Releases</firstterm>. Development releases are
        where new functionality is introduced. Documentation for new features
        will be available but it may not be up to the standards of the stable
        release documentation. Sites running Development Releases should be
        prepared to play an active role in testing new features. Bug fixes and
        problem resolution for the development release take a back seat to
        support of the stable releases. Problem reports for the current
        development release should be sent to the <ulink
        url="mailto:shorewall-devel@lists.shorewall.net">Shorewall Development
        Mailing List</ulink>.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>When the level of functionality of the current development
        release is judged adequate, the <firstterm>Beta period</firstterm> for
        a new Stable release will begin. Beta releases have identifications of
        the form <emphasis>x.y.0-BetaN</emphasis> where
        <emphasis>x.y</emphasis> is the number of the next Stable Release and
        <emphasis>N</emphasis>=1,2,3... . Betas are expected to occur roughly
        once per year. Beta releases may contain new functionality not present
        in the previous beta release (e.g., 2.2.0-Beta4 may contain
        functionality not present in 2.2.0-Beta3). When I'm confident that the
        current Beta release is stable, I will release the first
        <firstterm>Release Candidate</firstterm>. Release candidates have
        identifications of the form <emphasis>x.y.0-RCn</emphasis> where
        <emphasis>x.y</emphasis> is the number of the next Stable Release and
        <emphasis>n</emphasis>=1,2,3... . Release candidates contain no new
        functionality -- they only contain bug fixes. When the stability of
        the current release candidate is judged to be sufficient then that
        release candidate will be released as the new stable release (e.g.,
        2.2.0). At that time, the new stable release and the prior stable
        release are those that are supported.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>What does it mean for a major release to be
        <firstterm>supported</firstterm>? It means that I will answer
        questions about the release and that if a bug is found, I will fix the
        bug and include the fix in the next minor release.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Between minor releases, bug fixes will continue to be made
        available through the <ulink url="errata.htm">Errata page</ulink> for
        each major release.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Additionally, bug fixes may be made available in the form of a
        <firstterm>patch release</firstterm>. Patch releases have four-level
        identifications (e.g., 4.0.6.1); the first three identify the minor
        release and the fourth identifies the patch level.</para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>

    <para>We are currently waiving the two major release rule and are
    supporting three major releases — the currently-supported major releases
    are 3.2.x, 3.4.x and 4.0.x.</para>
  </section>

  <section id="Old">
    <title>Old Release Model</title>

    <para>This release model described above was adopted on 2004-07-03 and
    modified 2004-07-21. Prior to 2004-07-03, a different release model was
    followed. Highlights of that model were:</para>

    <orderedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Releases were numbered in a manner similar to the current
        release model.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Major new functionality was added in minor releases of the
        current major release. There was no concept of Stable vs Development
        major releases.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Bug fix only releases were always against the last minor release
        of a major release and had identifications of the form
        <emphasis>x.y.zX</emphasis> (e.g., 2.0.3c) where
        <emphasis>X</emphasis>=1,b,c,... . Consequently, if a user required a
        bug fix but was not running the last minor release of the associated
        major release then it might be necessary to accept major new
        functionality along with the bug fix.</para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
  </section>
</article>