RTEMS Release Snapshots

[Chris Johns]

Hello,

I would like to announce the start of release snapshots from the master branch.
A release snapshot will be created on the first day of each month. These are
development snapshots so they can be unstable.

An announce email will be posted to user at rtems.org and devel at rtems.org with a
link to the release files. The release snapshot's build results will be posted
to build at rtems.org list and viewable in it's archive.

Please download, test and post your results. Your feedback is welcomed and
valuable to us as maintainer as well as the community.

Snapshots
---------

Release snapshots provide feedback to us about the state of a release as
development happens. Releasing is a complicated process and it can break and rot
if it is not run regularly. Release snapshot are part of our attempt to address
this problem and to improve the overall quality of RTEMS releases.

Testing
-------

There has been a lot of work in past few years to improve the testing of RTEMS.
We would welcome your feedback. The best way to provide feedback is to post
build results from your preferred host or post tests results for your BSP. The
commands you use to build and test have a --mail option and they will post the
results. The build mailing list is used to collect these results. You can
subscribe here:

 https://lists.rtems.org/mailman/listinfo/build

If you need help posting build or test results please ask.

Tiers
-----

RTEMS has a tier structure for BSPs to help us know the state of a BSP [1]. We
have test results for some hardware and we would love to have more. At some
point we will automatically collect the posted test results and create a "score
board" to rank BSPs. For this to work and be of real value we need posted test
results. You think this sound complicated to do but it is not that difficult and
what it gives you and the community is really valuable.

Thanks
Chris

[1] Tiers
https://docs.rtems.org/branches/master/user/hardware/tiers.html