version numbering

[David Relson]

At 07:40 PM 2/4/03, Matthias Andree wrote:

>Let's check if we agree on this:
>
>1. bugfix releases without features will be named 0.10.3, 0.10.4, ...
>2. the next stable release will be 0.11.n
>
>If so, I can see that we could bump the number on the main trunk (head
>version) to 0.11.0, name the betas 0.11.1.x and 0.11.2 for the next
>stable release that brings new features.
>
>Does that sound reasonable to you?

I don't agree.  We're presently at 0.10.2 and there are two outstanding 
patches for fairly minor problems.  Until we have a new major feature, 
there will be 0.10.2.x bugfix release(s).  As new (minor) features are 
added, the version should bump up to 0.10.3, then 0.10.4, etc.  New major 
features will take us to 0.11.0, 0.12.0, etc.  This is how I think versions 
should be numbered.

"Stable" is a separate matter.  At any given time bogofilter has a stable 
version.  Likely there is also a bugfix release and possibly an unstable 
(beta) version.  It seems like there may be different criteria for 
promoting a release to "stable" and they depend on the software version.

A bugfix release that's old (a week? several days?) and hasn't had any new 
bugs reported rates a promotion to stable.  This can be done by moving 
files on SourceForge and doesn't require a rebuild.

When there are significant new features involved, the test period (such as 
we just had for 0.10.2) is likely to be longer with a number of bugfix 
releases (for the new features).  After the new feature reaches stability, 
it's time to promote the version to stable (with appropriate version number 
change).

This last procedure is, more or less, what guided me with 0.10.2.  We had 
several significant new features - mime processing, html comments, database 
locking, etc - and it took 5 bugfix releases (over 2 weeks) before things 
were reasonably stable.  Given the desire to have an "official, stable 
release" containing those features, the time from last bugfix to stable was 
shorter rather than longer (roughly 2 days).

To summarize:  The next bugfix release will be 0.10.2.1.  The next minor 
release will be 0.10.3.  The next major release will be 0.11.0

>(Permission is granted to forward this mail to bogofilter-dev for open
>discussion if needed.)

All interested parties are invited to join in the discussion ...

David