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Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 23:22:46 +0100
Message-Id: <CQ6Q6AA3IIAD.1ODUEWRCBWZHD@sumire>
Subject: Re: linux-lts vs. linux-edge
From: "alice" <alice@ayaya.dev>
To: "Christian Kujau" <lists@nerdbynature.de>,
 <alpine-user@lists.alpinelinux.org>
References: <11ef5892-ee4f-fab7-4eda-81eaca667ee8@nerdbynature.de>
In-Reply-To: <11ef5892-ee4f-fab7-4eda-81eaca667ee8@nerdbynature.de>

On Tue Jan 31, 2023 at 10:32 PM CET, Christian Kujau wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I was wondering about the packages linux-lts (main) and linux-edge=20
> (community). LTS suggests some kind of Long Term Support, the "more stabl=
e=20
> version" of the Linux kernel. But I noticed that both versions are=20
> basically the same, and have been for some time, according to their commi=
t=20
> histories[0]: linux-lts was bumped to 6.1.8 on Jan 24, linux-edge on the=
=20
> same day.
>
> So, my first question is: what's the rationale behind these packages?=20
> Looking at kernel.org, v6.1.8 *is* actually the current stable version.=
=20
> But what should -edge be? Maybe current mainline, i.e. the -rc versions?

lts follows latest lts, and edge follows latest stable. as mentioned in the
other response, the intention was that 6.1 would be the next lts, ncopa jus=
t
seemingly made that change early.

you say "are basically the same, and have been for some time", but it has b=
een
~1.5 months since this specific upgrade, not multiple years of following th=
e
same versions or something.

on top of that, the change is only **in the edge branch**. alpine indeed on=
ly
ships the latest lts in stable releases, nothing changed.

personally, i wouldn't have upgraded -lts to 6.1 before it was announced as
'lts' (specifically to curb this kind of confusion), but i also don't think
anything wrong was really done here. the edge branch is, well, unstable edg=
e,
and 6.1 is most likely the next lts, just later rather sooner.

> The reason I'm asking is that I ran into a bug when upgrading from=20
> linux-edge v6.1.1 to v6.1.8 (external disks not recognized, yet to be=20
> bisected[1]) and I thought "Hah! I'll just go back to linux-lts", only to=
=20
> find out that both are the same versions now :-\

you could use 3.17 i suppose. mixing repositories between branches isn't
supported, but for the kernel specifically it should work (no library
dependencies), so you could add linux-lts from the 3.17-stable repository.

> Does anybody know details behind these versions?

as mentioned above, -edge is latest-stable and -lts is latest-lts. on top o=
f
that, -edge has a completely different configuration.

> I thought about posting  to ~alpine/devel but that list didn't look too
> active and seems to have a  spam problem too.

it is a working and monitored mailing list just like this one. and just lik=
e
every mailing list in the world, full of spam :-)

>
> Thanks for your input,
> Christian.
>
> [0] https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/commits/master/{main,c=
ommunity}/linux-{lts,edge}
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/4fe9541e-4d4c-2b2a-f8c8-2d34a7284930@ner=
dbynature.de/
> --=20
> BOFH excuse #344:
>
> Network failure -  call NBC