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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-15 16:27:18 +0000
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+Version Naming
+==============
+
+This is the proposal on how versions should be named in the future:
+
+Rsyslog version naming has undergone a number of changes in the past.
+Our sincere hopes is that the scheme outlined here will serve us well
+for the future. In general, a three-number versioning scheme with a
+potential development state indication is used. It follows this pattern:
+
+major.minor.patchlevel[-devstate]
+
+where devstate has some further structure:
+-<releaseReason><releaseNumber>
+
+All stable builds come without the devstate part. All unstable
+development version come with it.
+
+The major version is incremented whenever something really important
+happens. A single new feature, even if important, does not justify an
+increase in the major version. There is no hard rule when the major
+version needs an increment. It mostly is a soft factor, when the
+developers and/or the community think there has been sufficient change
+to justify that. Major version increments are expected to happen quite
+infrequently, maybe around once a year. A major version increment has
+important implications from the support side: without support contracts,
+the current major version's last stable release and the last stable
+release of the version immediately below it are supported (Adiscon, the
+rsyslog sponsor, offers `support contracts <http://www.rsyslog.com/professional-services/>`_
+covering all other versions).
+
+The minor version is incremented whenever a non-trivial new feature is
+planned to be added. Triviality of a feature is simply determined by
+time estimated to implement a feature. If that's more than a few days,
+it is considered a non-trivial feature. Whenever a new minor version is
+begun, the desired feature is identified and will be the primary focus
+of that major.minor version. Trivial features may justify a new minor
+version if they either do not look trivial from the user's point of view
+or change something quite considerable (so we need to alert users). A
+minor version increment may also be done for some other good reasons
+that the developers have.
+
+The patchlevel is incremented whenever there is a bugfix or very minor
+feature added to a (stable or development) release.
+
+The devstate is important during development of a feature. It helps the
+developers to release versions with new features to the general public
+and in the hope that this will result in some testing. To understand how
+it works, we need to look at the release cycle: As already said, at the
+start of a new minor version, a new non-trivial feature to be
+implemented in that version is selected. Development on this feature
+begins. At the current pace of development, getting initial support for
+such a non-trivial feature typically takes between two and four weeks.
+During this time, new feature requests come in. Also, we may find out
+that it may be just the right time to implement some not yet targeted
+feature requests. A reason for this is that the minor release's feature
+focus is easier to implement if the other feature is implemented first.
+This is a quite common thing to happen. So development on the primary
+focus may hold for a short period while we implement something else.
+Even unrelated, but very trivial feature requests (maybe an hour's worth
+of time to implement), may be done in between. Once we have implemented
+these things, we would like to release as quickly as possible (even more
+if someone has asked for the feature). So we do not like to wait for the
+original focus feature to be ready (what could take maybe three more
+weeks). As a result, we release the new features. But that version will
+also include partial code of the focus feature. Typically this doesn't
+hurt as long as noone tries to use it (what of course would miserably
+fail). But still, part of the new code is already in it. When we release
+such a "minor-feature enhanced" but "focus-feature not yet completed"
+version, we need a way to flag it. In current thinking, that is using a
+"-mf<version>" devstate in the version number ("mf" stands for "minor
+feature"). Version numbers for -mf releases start at 0 for the first
+release and are monotonically incremented. Once the focus feature has
+been fully implemented, a new version now actually supporting that
+feature will be released. Now, the release reason is changed to the
+well-know "-rc<version>" where "rc" stands for release candidate. For
+the first release candidate, the version starts at 0 again and is
+incremented monotonically for each subsequent release. Please note that
+a -rc0 may only have bare functionality but later -rc's have a richer
+one. If new minor features are implemented and released once we have
+reached rc stage, still a new rc version is issued. The difference
+between "mf" and "rc" is simply the presence of the desired feature. No
+support is provided for -mf versions once the first -rc version has been
+released. And only the most current -rc version is supported.
+
+The -rc is removed and the version declared stable when we think it has
+undergone sufficient testing and look sufficiently well. Then, it'll
+turn into a stable release. Stable minor releases never receive
+non-trivial new features. There may be more than one -rc releases
+without a stable release present at the same time. In fact, most often
+we will work on the next minor development version while the previous
+minor version is still a -rc because it is not yet considered
+sufficiently stable.
+
+Note: the absence of the -devstate part indicates that a release is
+stable. Following the same logic, any release with a -devstate part is
+unstable.
+
+A quick sample: 
+
+4.0.0 is the stable release. We begin to implement relp, moving to
+major.minor to 4.1. While we develop it, someone requests a trivial
+feature, which we implement. We need to release, so we will have
+4.1.0-mf0. Another new feature is requested, move to 4.1.0-mf2. A first
+version of RELP is implemented: 4.1.0-rc0. A new trivial feature is
+implemented: 4.1.0-rc1. Relp is being enhanced: 4.1.0-rc2. We now feel
+RELP is good enough for the time being and begin to implement TLS on
+plain /Tcp syslog: logical increment to 4.2. Now another new feature in
+that tree: 4.2.0-mf0. Note that we now have 4.0.0 (stable) and 4.1.0-rc2
+and 4.1.0-mf0 (both devel). We find a big bug in RELP coding. Two new
+releases: 4.1.0-rc3, 4.2.0-mf1 (the bug fix acts like a non-focus
+feature change). We release TLS: 4.2.0-rc0. Another RELP bug fix
+4.1.0-rc4, 4.2.0-rc1. After a while, RELP is matured: 4.1.0 (stable).
+Now support for 4.0.x stable ends. It, however, is still provided for
+3.x.x (in the actual case 2.x.x, because v3 was under the old naming
+scheme and now stable v3 was ever released).
+
+This is how it is done so far:
+
+This document briefly outlines the strategy for naming versions. It
+applies to versions 1.0.0 and above. Versions below that are all
+unstable and have a different naming schema.
+
+**Please note that version naming is currently being changed. There is a
+`blog post about future rsyslog
+versions <https://rainer.gerhards.net/2007/08/on-rsyslog-versions.html>`_.**
+
+The major version is incremented whenever a considerate, major features
+have been added. This is expected to happen quite infrequently.
+
+The minor version number is incremented whenever there is "sufficient
+need" (at the discretion of the developers). There is a notable
+difference between stable and unstable branches. The **stable branch**
+always has a minor version number in the range from 0 to 9. It is
+expected that the stable branch will receive bug and security fixes
+only. So the range of minor version numbers should be quite sufficient.
+
+For the **unstable branch**, minor version numbers always start at 10
+and are incremented as needed (again, at the discretion of the
+developers). Here, new minor versions include both fixes as well as new
+features (hopefully most of the time). They are expected to be released
+quite often.
+
+The patch level (third number) is incremented whenever a really minor
+thing must be added to an existing version. This is expected to happen
+quite infrequently.
+
+In general, the unstable branch carries all new development. Once it
+concludes with a sufficiently-enhanced, quite stable version, a new
+major stable version is assigned.