RTEMS 4.6.2 BSP support

[Joel Sherrill <joel@OARcorp.com>]

Haberhausen, Dierk wrote:
> Hello,
> one question about the new RTEMS 4.6.2 Release.
> In CVS the ARM BSP for the CSB336 and CSB337 Boards are available.
> Why are they not included in the new RTEMS 4.6.2?	

In general, .Z revisions in any version X.Y.Z will NOT contain
new BSPs or functionalities.  THis is because these are supposed
to be bug fix releases.  Proactically something like a BSP into two
places is extra (unpaid) work.

There are two exceptions to this rule:

   + NFS was added to the 4.6 series because it was in an Add-On
     and had no impact on RTEMS itself.

   + Rarely, someone will pay to get a BSP merged into both
     a development tree and a release tree.  This solves the
     duplicate (unpaid) work part.  The BSP has to have
     virtually no impact outside its own BSP directory for this
     to even be discussed.  For a large highly CMed project,
     this may be the only way they will use RTEMS -- to get a
     formal release with their bug fixes and submitted BSP.

In general, Ralf's comments were correct -- bug fixes only.
At this point, there may have been only 1 or 2 cases where the
rule was bent.

Long term, I would like to see RTEMS be more like the Linux model
where a stable branch or even an older release gets new .z releases.
4.6 and 4.7 use versioned tools and special install locations to
make this easier.  So it should be possible to support multiple
active release branches in the future if there is interest,
significant volunteering, and/or sponsorship.

There was a technical issue, now there is an issue of resources
and practicality.

> Thanks,
> Dierk
> 


-- 
Joel Sherrill, Ph.D.             Director of Research & Development
joel at OARcorp.com                 On-Line Applications Research
Ask me about RTEMS: a free RTOS  Huntsville AL 35805
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