# Ports Quarterly Branch Changes



## Jose (Mar 6, 2021)

According to the docs, the ports quarterly branches are for


> The aim of these branches is to provide users with a more predictable and stable experience for port and package installation and upgrades. This is done essentially by only allowing _non-feature_ updates.



Can someone explain to me how this commit fits that description?
https://cgit.freebsd.org/ports/commit/?h=2021Q1&id=224bc88c950fd5330852963378653d7c755390d1EDIT: Updated link to git commit.


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## Phishfry (Mar 6, 2021)

I am surprised any new port would be retroactively added to Quarterly. Unless it was needed for another ports security vuln fix.
Smells like a feature to me.

Cavaet: 
-You could look at it and say: How does this affect me personally? Does this spoil the package system?

When I first found out that ports from Quarterly were updated I was internally appalled.
How could a stable branch be changing like that?
I have better things to worry about though.


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## Jose (Mar 6, 2021)

Phishfry said:


> I am surprised any new port would be retroactively added to Quarterly. Unless it was needed for another ports security vuln fix.
> Smells like a feature to me.
> 
> Cavaet:
> ...


What's the point of having a "stable" branch if random stuff from unstable is going to get merged into it willy-nilly? Might as well use HEAD and get used to breakage.


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## Phishfry (Mar 6, 2021)

Wayland has its way of attracting people.
Like the gold pot at the end of a rainbow.


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## Jose (Mar 6, 2021)

That was my initial thought too, but this changed my mind




__





						FreshPorts -- multimedia/arcan: Display Server, Multimedia Framework, Game Engine
					

Arcan is a powerful development framework for creating virtually anything from user interfaces for specialized embedded applications all the way to full-blown standalone desktop environments.  At its heart lies a robust and portable multimedia engine, with a well-tested and well-documented Lua...




					www.freshports.org


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## Phishfry (Mar 6, 2021)

Jose said:


> Might as well use HEAD and get used to breakage.



I really don't think 'latest packages' are as problem prone/exploratory/alpha as HEAD can be.
I get the point though.


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## SirDice (Mar 7, 2021)

Jose said:


> What's the point of having a "stable" branch if random stuff from unstable is going to get merged into it willy-nilly?


Wrong kind of 'stable' in this context. The quarterly branch has nothing to do with its fitness to run, the 'stable' in this context refers to the number of changes. Quarterly is branched off from HEAD every three months. Regards of the state of HEAD at that time.


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## Jose (Mar 8, 2021)

SirDice said:


> Wrong kind of 'stable' in this context. The quarterly branch has nothing to do with its fitness to run, the 'stable' in this context refers to the number of changes. Quarterly is branched off from HEAD every three months. Regards of the state of HEAD at that time.


"Predictable and stable" is straight out of the description of the branch from the wiki:


			Ports/QuarterlyBranch - FreeBSD Wiki


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## msplsh (Mar 8, 2021)

The complaint makes sense until you realize that you would never get any new ports or features into quarterly if you followed those rules.  So, all the new stuff should get dropped on the quarter change and only "stable" fixes get patched into it until the next quarter change (I assume, from SirDice's description).


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## richardtoohey2 (Mar 8, 2021)

Both seem like very good points 

But I think I'm now getting stuck in a logic loop


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## Jose (Mar 8, 2021)

Any new ports would be picked up when a new quarterly branch is cut. There isn't a single quarterly branch that gets updated, a new quarterly branch is cut from head every quarter, presumably.


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## SirDice (Mar 8, 2021)

Jose said:


> a new quarterly branch is cut from head every quarter, presumably.


A new quarterly is almost there (early April), you can check it yourself. Just compare HEAD with 2021Q2 when it's been branched off.


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