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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/SubmittingPatches | 24 |
1 files changed, 20 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches index f1774c91e9..973d7a81d4 100644 --- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches +++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches @@ -50,12 +50,28 @@ latest HEAD commit of `maint` or `master` based on the following cases: * Otherwise (such as if you are adding new features) use `master`. + +NOTE: In exceptional cases, a bug that was introduced in an old +version may have to be fixed for users of releases that are much older +than the recent releases. `git describe --contains X` may describe +`X` as `v2.30.0-rc2-gXXXXXX` for the commit `X` that introduced the +bug, and the bug may be so high-impact that we may need to issue a new +maintenance release for Git 2.30.x series, when "Git 2.41.0" is the +current release. In such a case, you may want to use the tip of the +maintenance branch for the 2.30.x series, which may be available in the +`maint-2.30` branch in https://github.com/gitster/git[the maintainer's +"broken out" repo]. + This also means that `next` or `seen` are inappropriate starting points for your work, if you want your work to have a realistic chance of -graduating to `master`. They are simply not designed to provide a -stable base for new work, because they are (by design) frequently -re-integrated with incoming patches on the mailing list and force-pushed -to replace previous versions of these branches. +graduating to `master`. They are simply not designed to be used as a +base for new work; they are only there to make sure that topics in +flight work well together. This is why both `next` and `seen` are +frequently re-integrated with incoming patches on the mailing list and +force-pushed to replace previous versions of themselves. A topic that is +literally built on top of `next` cannot be merged to `master` without +dragging in all the other topics in `next`, some of which may not be +ready. For example, if you are making tree-wide changes, while somebody else is also making their own tree-wide changes, your work may have severe |