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List:       9fans
Subject:    Re: [9fans] Determining which distribution/updates I have.
From:       "Russ Cox" <rsc () plan9 ! bell-labs ! com>
Date:       2000-11-30 9:35:30
Message-ID: 20001130093532.0DB42199F6 () mail ! cse ! psu ! edu
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  Also, is it a general rule that it
  is better to have the latest distribution
  of Plan9 or are earlier versions more stable?

We haven't been making the common distinction
between stable and "unstable" versions of the
software.  This is mainly because distribution
updates are only done when the source tree has
itself stabilized and changes have been soaked
properly.  We try to keep unstable code from 
going out.

The vast majority of the modifications have been
used for a while before they go out the door,
so the distributions are fairly stable.  I'd say
it's best to have the latest stuff.  Most of the
changes have been bug fixes and small feature 
additions.

The big exception to this, as you have seen,
has been the wrap suite.  Not even six months
old, it is still evolving as we gain experience
with it and with doing distribution updates.
Unfortunately the only real exercise it gets
(as opposed to limited testing) is in the 
preparation of releases, which means that the
released wrap code is often not as soaked as
the rest of the distribution.  I believe I've
tweaked the wrap suite during the preparation
of each of the releases this far.  Yesterday's
update was the result of a fairly substantial
code review and rewrite informed by some 
file system synchronization theory I've been
toying with.  I think it's a lot more solid
than it was, but it's also not done evolving
just yet.

Russ

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