Clarification on CVS Tags

[Jason Williams]

Thanks Matthew for your explanation. You answered a lot of my questions.
Makes sense now really.

Just out of curiosity, why would someone want to use:

RELENG_4_8_0_RELEASE?

Is there some type of benefit?
One would think that the best option for production servers is:

RELENG_4_8

THanks for your insight.

Jason


At 06:37 PM 10/28/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>On Tue, Oct 28, 2003 at 09:43:20AM -0800, Jason Williams wrote:
> > Good morning everyone.
> >
> > I was hoping to get some verification regarding CVS Tags. I'm pretty 
> sure I
> > understand, but just wanted to have my thoughts validated for me.
> >
> > In reading the CVS Tag page in the handbook, I understand the basics of
> > what is going on.
> >
> > If I specify this in my cvsup file:
> > RELENG_4_8
> >
> > I will follow the Release Branch of 4.8, plus security patches.
> > This would be a good choice for production servers.
>
>Correct.
>
>
> > RELENG_4
> > For this, you are following the entire 4.x stable branch. In theory, if I
> > install 4.5 and set this up in my cvsup file and run it, I will have the
> > source tree going all the way to 4.9rc# correct? From here, you could 
> build
> > world?
>
>Correct.  At the moment, RELENG_4 will get you 4.9-RC4, which will
>shortly become 4.9-RELEASE for a few minutes while the RELENG_4_9
>branch is created, and then 4.9-STABLE.
>
>If you're willing to wait for a few days RELENG_4_9 would also be a
>good choice for a production server.
>
> > Finally:
> >
> > RELENG_4_8_0_RELEASE
> >
> > This would follow just the source, ports and docs tree up to 4.8, the
> > "frozen" section, correct?
> > Why would someone want to use this particular setup? What are the 
> benefits?
> > Drawbacks?
> > Would it work in a sense that if I installed 4.4 on a server, set this up
> > in my cvsup file to RELENG_4_8_0_RELEASE, ran the update to update 
> sources,
> > ports and docs, then make world: That then would make my box 4.8 ?
>
>Not so correct.  RELENG_4_8_0_RELEASE marks the state of the system
>sources at the point that the RELENG_4_8 branch was created, and what
>went onto the release CDs.  Yes, you can use this tag to download
>sources and building world from there will get you 4.8-RELEASE.
>
>However, it's not generally useful to put this tag into a cvsup
>sup-file -- principally because it marks a point in time, and once
>you've downloaded it, there won't be any updates.  So: no security
>patches etc.  If you're tempted to use this tag, then you probably
>really want to use RELENG_4_8 or RELENG_4_9 instead.
>
>Note that the RELENG_4_x and RELENG_5_x tags apply only to the system
>sources.  The one important tag you've not mentionned is '.', also
>known as the HEAD in cvs terms.  When applied to the system sources,
>this gets you 5-CURRENT, but unless you're a high powered system
>hacker type, you don't want that.
>
>Ports and docs however, are a different matter. For those collections
>'.' is the only game in town.  The RELENG_x_y tags simply don't exist,
>and if you accidentally try and cvsup ports using one of them, you'll
>end up deleting your whole ports tree.  [The RELENG_x_y_0_RELEASE tags
>do exist, but exactly like the system sources they just serve to mark
>what goes onto the CD Roms.]
>
>         Cheers,
>
>         Matthew
>
>
>--
>Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
>                                                       Savill Way
>PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
>Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK