[U-Boot] U-Boot Versioning

[Wolfgang Denk]

Hi,

after some discussions in the past I propose to use the following
numbering scheme for future releases of U-Boot (starting with the
upcoming one):

* Regular releases (about once every two months or so) shall be named
  "YYYY.MM" with YYYY = year as 4 digits, MM = month (01..12)

  In other words:
  	VERSION = year as 4 digits
	PATCHLEVEL = month as 2 digits

  That means the upcoming release, which is scheduled for October
  2008, would be named "2008.10".

* Intermediate releases, that might become necessary because of
  serious bugs or other major problems, shall be indicated by
  incrementing the "SUBLEVEL" field.

  SUBLEVEL = 0 corresponds to the original  release  version  and  is
  usually   omitted,  i.  e.  while  "2008.10"  and  "2008.10.0"  are
  considered to be the same, the normal notation shall  be  "2008.10"
  only. [See "stable trees below"]

  That means, if we should have two intermediate  releases  following
  the normal, scheduled release "2008.10", these would be numbered as
  "2008.10.1" and "2008.10.2", respectively.

* There may be a need to fix problems with older releases, i. e. to
  maintain "stable trees" similar to what Linux is doing. We will use
  the "EXTRAVERSION" field to identify versions in such stable trees.

  So "2008.10.0.y" stands for versions in the stable  tree  branching
  off  the  "2008.10"  release,  and  "2008.10.2.3"  would be the 3rd
  version the stable tree branching off the 2nd intermediate releases
  following release "2008.10".


I think we will most probably not need all this complexity (we didn't
need it in the last 8 years of U-Boot development), but I think  it's
a good idea to be prepared in case anybody asks for it.


To summarise: I intend to name the upcoming release "2008.10".


Are there any important arguments against this versioning scheme ?

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
"If God had wanted us to use the metric system, Jesus would have  had
10 apostles."