Re: [Buildroot] [PATCH 1/1] docs/manual: update 'releases' to reflect LTS changes

Hi Edgar,

In reply of:
> On 2026-07-27, Thomas Perale wrote:
> > With the release of 2025.02, LTS releases are now made every two years
> > with a 3-year support.
> > 
> > This reflect the table showed at https://lts.buildroot.org/#releases.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Thomas Perale <[email protected]>
> > ---
> >  docs/manual/release-engineering.adoc | 22 ++++++++++++----------
> >  1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/docs/manual/release-engineering.adoc b/docs/manual/release-engineering.adoc
> > index 0cf38183f9..e202e70868 100644
> > --- a/docs/manual/release-engineering.adoc
> > +++ b/docs/manual/release-engineering.adoc
> > @@ -5,19 +5,21 @@
> >  == Release Engineering
> >  === Releases
> >  
> > -The Buildroot project makes quarterly releases with monthly bugfix
> > -releases.  The first release of each year is a long term support
> > -release, LTS.
> > +The Buildroot project makes quarterly releases with monthly bugfix releases.
> > +Starting with 2025.02, long-term stable (LTS) releases are made every two years
> 
> Conventionally, “LTS” stands for “Long-Term Support”. The LTS page[1]
> on the Buildroot Web site has the wordings:
> 
>  * long-term support
>  * Long-term sustainability
>  * long-term stable
> 
> but only the first one seems commonly abbreviated as “LTS”.
> 
> What about being more explicit, like “Starting with 2025.02, the first
> release of every odd-numbered year is [an LTS]”?

Indeed this look better.

> > +and supported for three years.
> >  
> > - - Quarterly releases: 2020.02, 2020.05, 2020.08, and 2020.11
> > - - Bugfix releases: 2020.02.1, 2020.02.2, ...
> > - - LTS releases: 2020.02, 2021.02, ...
> > + - LTS releases: 2025.02, 2027.02, 2029.02 ...
> > + - Stable releases: 2025.05, 2025.08, 2025.11 and 2026.02, ...
> 
> I would avoid “and”, which implies that what comes is the last element
> in the list, somewhat contradicting the ellipsis that follows.

Yes, I'm gonna drop that 'and' 

> Note that, in the previous version of this page, it is clear that
> “LTS releases” are a subset of “stable releases”. With this change, it
> looks more like non-overlapping categories. If this is intended, maybe
> the “stable” category could be renamed “interim releases”. This has an
> implication for the next sentence.

Indeed, imo the previous categorization into stable - lts as a subset made it
more confusing to me and clearly making the difference explain the difference
lifecycle better.

I wouldn't rename it though as people are already using this naming convention.

Did it make more sense to you to consider LTS as a subset of stable ?

> > + - Bugfix releases: 2025.02.1, 2025.02.2, ...
> >  
> > -Releases are supported until the first bugfix release of the next
> > -release, e.g., 2020.05.x is EOL when 2020.08.1 is released.
> > +Stable releases are supported until the next release, e.g., 2025.05.x is EOL
> > +when 2025.08 is released.
> 
> If “LTS releases” is a subset of “stable releases”, then this is
> incorrect: it should be “Non-LTS stable releases are supported...”.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Edgar.
> 
> [1] https://buildroot.org/lts.html
> 
> >  
> > -LTS releases are supported until the first bugfix release of the next
> > -LTS, e.g., 2020.02.x is supported until 2021.02.1 is released.
> > +LTS releases are supported for three years, with a one-year overlap with the
> > +next LTS release, e.g., 2025.02.x is EOL when 2028.02 is released.
> > +
> > +See the table at https://lts.buildroot.org/#releases[lts.buildroot.org].
> >  
> >  === Development
> >  

Thanks for the comments !
PERALE Thomas

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