linux-kernel - Re: [RFC] Kernel version numbering scheme change

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Date:	Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:29:54 -0700 (PDT)
From:	david@...g.hm
To:	"Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@...k.pl>
cc:	Jiri Kosina <jkosina@...e.cz>, Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>,
	Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
	Steven Noonan <steven@...inklabs.net>,
	Adrian Bunk <bunk@...nel.org>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC] Kernel version numbering scheme change

On Sun, 19 Oct 2008, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:

> On Sunday, 19 of October 2008, Jiri Kosina wrote:
>> On Fri, 17 Oct 2008, david@...g.hm wrote:
>>
>>>> Surely some scripts will start to break as soon as the third number gets
>>>> three digits.
>>> we've had three digit numbers in the third position before (2.3 and 2.5
>>> went well past three digits IIRC)
>>
>> Did we? I only recall 2.5.7[something] and 2.3.5[something] (plus special
>> 2.3.99 release).
>>
>>>> Actually, I thought we could continue to use a w.x.y.z numbering
>>>> scheme, but in such a way that:
>>>> w = ($year - 2000) / 10 + 2 (so that we start from 2)
>>>> x = $year % 10
>>>> y = (number of major release in $year)
>>>> z = (number of stable version for major release w.x.y)
>>>> Then, the first major release in 2009 would be 2.9.1 and its first
>>>> -stable "child" would become 2.9.1.1.  In turn, the first major
>>>> release in 2010 could be 3.0.1 and so on.
>>> if you want the part of the version number to increment based on the year,
>>> just make it the year and don't complicate things.
>>
>> In addition to that, having the kernel version dependent on year doesn't
>> really seem to make much sense to me. Simply said, I don't see any
>> relation of kernel source code contents to the current date in whatever
>> calendar system.
>>
>> And 2.x+1.y-rcZ+1 immediately following 2.x.y-rcZ really hurts my eyes :)
>
> Hm, why would that happen?

with the date based numbers, that was one of the things that 'could' 
happen as the year changed (2008.5.0-rc4 would be followed by 
2009.1.0-rc5)

David Lang
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