[erlang-questions] OTP Versions and Maint Branches

[Loïc Hoguin]

Thanks for the clarifications.

It is unfortunate that the customer-specific versions do not have a part 
identifying them like 20.0.7.1-potato. That would make it completely 
obvious.

On 12/03/2017 12:23 AM, Rickard Green wrote:
> Since there lately have been at least two questions about OTP versions 
> and branches I thought that I'll give a short description on how OTP 
> versions relate to our maint-<Rel> branches.
> 
> As of the OTP 17 release we changed the version scheme used. Due to this 
> the following only applies to OTP releases from OTP 17 and onwards.
> 
> We have one main track of OTP versions. Such versions are on the form 
> OTP X.Y[.Z] and we call these versions normal versions. New normal 
> versions are only assigned to the latest release. When we release a new 
> release of OTP, the next new version on the previous release has to 
> branch off from the latest version of that release. When this happens, 
> the code mass will branch off from the main track and the versions 
> issued will also reflect that. We call these versions branched versions 
> and these are on the form OTP X.Y.Z.U[.V ...]
> 
> The following "graph" shows the most interesting parts of the version 
> tree as of today. The main track is in the left column.
> 
> OTP 17.0
>   |
> ...
>   |
> OTP 17.5.6
>   |           \
> OTP 18.0      OTP 17.5.6.1
>   |             |
> ...           ...
>   |             |
> ...           OTP 17.5.6.9  (Current head of maint-17)
>   |
> OTP 18.3.4
>   |           \
> OTP 19.0      OTP 18.3.4.1
>   |             |
> ...           ...
>   |             |
> ...           OTP 18.3.4.7  (Current head of maint-18)
>   |
> OTP 19.3.6
>   |           \
> OTP 20.0      OTP 19.3.6.1
>   |             |
> ...           ...
>   |             |
> ...           OTP 19.3.6.4  (Current head of maint-19)
>   |
> ...
>   |
> OTP 20.1.7 (Current head of maint-20)
> 
> 
> The maint-17 branch will always have version numbers on the form OTP 
> 17.5.6.U, maint-18 on the form OTP 18.3.4.U, and maint-19 on the form 
> OTP 19.3.6.U. That is, versions like for example OTP 19.3.7 will *never* 
> ever show up.
> 
> When we release OTP 21, the maint-20 branch will branch off from the 
> main track and will then get branched version numbers as well. We do 
> however not now until that happens what those version numbers will look 
> like.
> 
> All patches released on the maint-R branches will be announced on the 
> erlang-questions list.
> 
> Appart from new versions on the maint-R branches there might appear new 
> branched versions more or less anywhere in the version tree. Those 
> patches address specific issues for specific customers and can be 
> ignored by others. We do also *not* announce such patches on the 
> erlang-questions list.
> 
> The easiest way to keep track of patches that you are interested in 
> should be to track the maint-R branches that you are interested in.
> 
> We more or less support three releases. The latest and the two older 
> just before that one. There might however show up patches on releases 
> older than that.
> 
> For more info in the version scheme see 
> http://erlang.org/doc/system_principles/versions.html
> 
> Regards,
> Rickard
> 
> -- 
> Rickard Green, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB
> 
> 
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-- 
Loïc Hoguin
https://ninenines.eu