[PATCH] start/user: describe version numbers and releases

[Gedare Bloom]

I pushed this.

On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 9:35 PM Gedare Bloom <gedare at rtems.org> wrote:
>
> Closes #2562.
> ---
>  user/start/preparation.rst | 49 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 49 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/user/start/preparation.rst b/user/start/preparation.rst
> index 546a03d..eb0d56b 100644
> --- a/user/start/preparation.rst
> +++ b/user/start/preparation.rst
> @@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
>  .. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0
>
> +.. Copyright (C) 2018 Shashvat Jain
>  .. Copyright (C) 2019 embedded brains GmbH
>  .. Copyright (C) 2019 Sebastian Huber
>  .. Copyright (C) 2020 Chris Johns
> +.. Copyright (C) 2020 Gedare Bloom
>
>  .. _QuickStartPreparation:
>
> @@ -62,3 +64,50 @@ If you are looking for a hardware target to run RTEMS on we recommend the
>  BSP. The BeagleBone Black support includes the RTEMS BSD Library (``libbsd``)
>  and networking. The BeagleBone Black BSP is an ARM architecture BSP so the tool
>  suite name is ``arm-rtems5``.
> +
> +Selecting a Version of RTEMS
> +----------------------------
> +
> +In the examples of this manual we will often refer to a specific version of
> +RTEMS, which will usually be the version that accompanied the publication of
> +this documentation manual. That may not be the appropriate version for you to
> +use, for example, it may be too old (or too new) depending on what you are
> +trying to do.  If you're not sure what version to use, we generally recommend
> +using the most recent release or the development head (master), and you may
> +want to consult with the same version of the documentation. We hope that newer
> +is better.
> +
> +An RTEMS *release* involves the creation of a single downloadable file,
> +normally a compressed tarball, that packages the source of all the repositories
> +in a state consistent with the time the release is created.
> +A release branch is a git branch pushed to the repositories named with the
> +numeric identifier of the branch.
> +A release branch release is a git tag on a release branch with
> +the tags pushed to the repositories.
> +
> +Numbering for RTEMS versions beginning with RTEMS 5 uses a format as follows.
> +The master branch has the version **N.0.0** with N being the next major release
> +number. The first release of this series has the version number **N.1.0.** and
> +there is exactly one commit with this version number in the corresponding
> +repository. The first bugfix release (minor release) of this series will have
> +the version number **N.2.0**. The release branch will have the version
> +number **N.M.1** with **M** being the last minor release of this series.
> +
> +For example:
> ++ 5.0.0 is the version number of the development master for the 5 series.
> ++ 5.1.0 is the first release of the 5 series.
> ++ 5.1.1 is the version number of the 5 series release branch right after
> +  the 5.1.0 release until 5.2.0 is released.
> ++ 5.2.0 is the first bugfix release of the 5 series
> ++ 5.2.1 is the version number of the 5 series release branch right after
> +  the 5.2.0 release until 5.3.0 is released.
> ++ 6.0.0 is the version number of the development master for the 6 series.
> +
> +RTEMS development tools use **N** as the version number and are expected to
> +work with all releases and the release branch of the N series.
> +So to build tools for compiling RTEMS version number 5.1.0 for SPARC use
> +``sparc-rtems5``. Despite the number not increasing, the tools may change
> +within a release branch, for example the tools packaged with 5.1.1 still use
> +the ``sparc-rtems5`` moniker, but are likely not the same as the tools used
> +in version 5.1.0. This tool mismatch can be a source of confusion. Be sure to
> +use the toolchain that matches your release.
> --
> 2.17.1
>