[Python-Dev] Documenting branch policy

[Barry Warsaw]

On Tue, 2003-09-09 at 05:26, Jack Jansen wrote:
> On 8-sep-03, at 15:18, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> 
> >> <p>Every release up to and including the final release for a new major
> >> Python version is accompanied by a <em>release branches</em>.
> >
> > There's even some debate about these (I've caught up with the thread, 
> > so
> > I know you've withdrawn this change).  I've been backing off the use of
> > release branches because they create more complexity in a world where
> > none of us have much time to deal with it.
> 
> They served me well for the MacPython-OS9 releases. But as 2.3 is going 
> to
> be the last of those anyway I could live without them, I guess.
> 
> Although: they'd still be useful in case of unforeseen problems with a
> distribution that are not code-related. Think of things like the Windows
> installer turning out to be broken on certain machine, so you want to 
> build
> the installer again (but not Python itself).

That's a good point.  Release branches are probably overkill for
alpha/beta/rc releases, but probably make sense for final releases.  We
actually did create one for 2.3, but I screwed up when I named it and
that caused a tiny bit of pain in moving to the maintenance branch. 
OTOH, for a final release, maybe release branch == maintenance branch.

-Barry