admin/notes/BRANCH

   1 This file describes the bzr branch in which it is maintained.
   2 Everything below the line is branch-specific.
   3 ________________________________________________________________________
   4
   5 This is the trunk (sometimes mistakenly called "HEAD").
   6 When people say "use the development version of Emacs" or the
   7 "bzr version of Emacs", this is the branch they are talking about.
   8
   9 Emacs development takes place on the trunk.  Most of the time, Emacs
  10 hackers add to it relatively free of constraint (aside from proper
  11 legal / accounting practices), although sometimes there is related
  12 discussion on the emacs-devel mailing list.
  13
  14 Sometime before the release of a new major version of Emacs (eg 22.1),
  15 a "feature freeze" is imposed on the trunk.  No new features may be
  16 added after this point.  This is usually many months before the release.
  17 During this time, there is no official place for development of new features.
  18
  19 Shortly before the release, a release branch is created.  For example,
  20 EMACS_22_BASE or EMACS_21_1_RC for Emacs 22.x and 21.x, respectively.
  21 (Unfortunately the naming scheme has not always been consistent.)
  22
  23 The release branch is used to make the release (22.1), and all later
  24 members of the series (22.2, 22.3, etc).  Generally, only bug-fixes have
  25 been allowed in the minor releases, although in 22.x, self-contained
  26 new features were allowed on a case-by-case basis.
  27
  28 From the point that a release branch is created, the trunk is free for
  29 development for the next major version.