Received-SPF: pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org designates 209.132.180.67 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.132.180.67;
Date:   Sun, 24 Feb 2019 13:54:49 +0100
From:   Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
To:     Federico Vaga <federico.vaga@vaga.pv.it>
Cc:     Zenghui Yu <zenghuiyu96@gmail.com>, corbet@lwn.net,
        linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Documentation/process/howto: Update for 4.x -> 5.x
 versioning
Message-ID: <20190224125449.GC10876@kroah.com>
References: <CAKcZhuWHU+udbAyL910JW8rhZsbpomz5TXs0z2FD4m5c5Sf8hw@mail.gmail.com>
 <4160738.QP7Yp4kBzP@harkonnen>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: <4160738.QP7Yp4kBzP@harkonnen>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.11.3 (2019-02-01)
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
Precedence: bulk

On Sun, Feb 24, 2019 at 11:16:56AM +0100, Federico Vaga wrote:
> hello,
> 
> I have just a general observation for the community, not related to the 
> content of this patch, but related with the idea behind.
> 
> Is it really important to specify the major release number in the documents? . 
> Can't we just use a generic x.y.z, or a more generic statement?
> 
> When you open a documentation page like
> 
> https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/
> 
> you will see the release number in the top left corner, which implies that 
> what you read is (should be) valid for that version. And if you read from the 
> sources you should know which version you checked out, and if you don't you
> can always verify.
> 
> I do not see the added value of having those numbers in the documents, unless 
> the purpose is to highlight some specific exceptions.
> 
> Am I missing some important reasons that justify these numbers?

Nothing really, it's just "history".  Given that the "major" number only
changes every 3-4 years, it's not all that big of a deal.

If you can think of a way to write these documents such that they do not
depend on a version number at all, I'm sure no one would object to those
patches.

thanks,

greg k-h