Re: stable snapshots...

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com> writes:
> Marc G. Fournier wrote:
>> Not sure about the usefulness of the extra stable tarballs ... doesn't  
>> most of the back patching happen just as we are about to release the new  
>> versions?

> Not sure where you got that idea.  There are plenty of times when
> somebody (mostly Tom) commits a bugfix and tells the reporter, stating
> that the release date of the new version is some undetermined point in
> the future.  Not everyone is able to grab the patch from CVS and apply
> it; my guess is that most people simply wait for the next stable
> release.  Those people would benefit from having the older stable
> branches, so here's a +1 to Stefan's idea.

Yeah.  When we have fixed a bug but not yet released an official version
with the fix, somebody who needs that bug fix has three choices:* manually apply the patch to a recent tarball;* pull
fromCVS;* use a nightly snapshot.
 
The first two cases require having extra tools like appropriate bison
and flex versions (which right now is looking like a bigger deal than
I would wish :-().

If we can build nightly snapshots for a release or two back without
undue effort, I think it'd be a useful service.
        regards, tom lane