[fpc-devel] Wrong version of db.pas in the fixes_3_2 branch?

[Marco van de Voort]

Op 1-4-2025 om 08:04 schreef Sven Barth via fpc-devel:
>
>
>     Are any other files from the 3.3.1 branch in the fixes_3_2 branch?
>
>
> There are no "files from the 3.3.1 branch" that were moved over (well, 
> expect maybe some new ones), just selected changes that were merged 
> over. This is simply how things work and third party software has to 
> adjust their checks. That's how it has always been.
>
As Sven says, the fixes branch is a mix of development-at-arms-length 
and a rigid stable branch(as in bugfix only). In practice it means that 
compiler changes are usually real bugfixes (the rigid part), but runtime 
and library changes and fixes are merged when they are considered stable 
(the development-at-arms-length part) and don't depend on new language 
features.

The criterium is mostly that the merges must be possible without too 
much hand interference (which could possibly introduce bugs due to the 
merging), in the past there have been exceptions to that for specially 
major Mysql versions.

New mysql major versions are also one of the main reasons why also 
features are added, otherwise you could now only use 6 year old 
mysql/mariadb versions (not that it is much better with the current 
fixes release frequency)

A few attempts were made at also providing wholly rigid stable branches  
for e.g. corporate use, but those initiatives to my best knowledge 
petered out.

The reasons are rooted in release frequency, but also spreading out 
library fixes more to avoid the dreaded "don't use .0 versions" syndrome 
by mitigating the amount of changes in library code that hasn't seen 
wide usage yet in new major (.0) releases.