Author: Jeff Garzik 2011-09-20 19:10:16
Published on: 2011-09-20T19:10:16+00:00
The kernel's development process, as explained by Jeff Garzik, can be applied to Bitcoin in some ways. The process starts with the release of Version X, and then Linus accepts pull requests into torvalds/linux.git for X+1 for a week through "merge window opens". Before this, it is recommended that these pull requests have been exposed to the public via "linux-next", which is maintained by Stephen Rothwell. After a week, the "merge window closes," and the stabilization and bug fix period begins for 2.5 months, during which no new features are merged into torvalds/linux.git. Developers focus on bug fixing, but they accept new features and changes into their own trees and branches. Linux "enterprise" distribution maintains a kernel for an extended period for customers who need stability over new features. Greg Kroah-Hartman maintains stable trees for version X-1 and X-2, accepting fixes provided that the fix has been accepted upstream. In such cases, an employee or volunteer maintains a stable branch of the kernel, backporting fixes from the main torvalds/linux.git tree into their gregkh/stable-2.6.36-linux.git tree. Finally, the core team can maintain a merge/stabilize/merge/stabilize workflow, introducing new features without a significant negative impact on the existing userbase. Therefore, decentralized operation, community decisions on long-term maintenance, and core team management strategies may be applied to Bitcoin's development process.
Updated on: 2023-06-04T19:52:06.476516+00:00