Re: 5.1-RELEASE TODO

On Tue, 13 May 2003, Heiko Schaefer wrote:

> > That said, we are actively discussing what, if any, workarounds are
> > appropriate, including some alternative workarounds from the ones
> > currently present.
> 
> bosko (who was mentioned here various time, regarding a patch to work
> around this) has contacted me, and i am looking forward to try his
> patch.  assuming that the patch is correct (whatever that would mean in
> this context), and there is some chance of accepting it anytime soon,
> maybe it would be sensible to try to get that into the release - or
> delay the release until this is sorted out ?! 
> 
> wouldn't a release that corrupts data in many, relevant, cases (i
> consider the box i had the trouble with entirely mainstream) be worse
> than no release at all? 

You don't need to argue to me that we need stability (I'm a fan of it
myself): what I need is evidence that some set of changes is actually
solving the problem, not masking it.  If there exists a patch that
substantially improves stability on some set of systems (and not at the
cost of another set), I think you can rest assured that we'll get it into
the release.  As with you, we're very concerned by the recent spate of
instability, especially in the beta cycle, and how to address that is very
much on our minds. 

Robert N M Watson             FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert_at_fledge.watson.org      Network Associates Laboratories