# FreeBSD 14.0



## Berserker79 (Apr 4, 2021)

I searched for title(s) similar to mine and did not find any and apologize if this question has already been asked. I know 12.2 is the current version and 13.0  (which I use) is on the close horizon. I do not know what 14.0 is, can someone tell me what is version 14.0? Thank you in advance.


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## Raffeale (Apr 4, 2021)

now the 14.0 is current version


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## eternal_noob (Apr 4, 2021)

Berserker79 said:


> I know 12.2 is the current version


No, 12.2 is currently -RELEASE.

There's -RELEASE, -STABLE and -CURRENT.



Raffeale said:


> 14.0 is current version


This is correct.

See https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/cutting-edge/#current-stable

In short: -CURRENT (currently 14.0) is the bleeding edge version of FreeBSD *not* meant to be installed by regular users. It's a development branch of FreeBSD where all the new stuff gets implemented.

It's not stable by any means. May run ok, may not run ok, may format all your harddrives at once. No one knows for sure since it's a playground for the developers.


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## zirias@ (Apr 4, 2021)

14.0 right now is still very similar to 13.0.

The whole scheme is pretty simple: There's one main development branch where all new work is done, this always has a version number XX.0-CURRENT.

For a major release, a "stable" branch is created, for example `stable/13` and from that branch, all minor releases are branched off (we now have `releng/13.0` for the first minor release of 13, 13.0-RELEASE).

Now, the "trick": As soon as a new "stable" branch is created, the version number in the main branch is incremented. Some time ago, we had 13.0-CURRENT, then, a stable branch for 13 was created (and also a release branch for 13.0, from which all the BETA and RC versions were built so far) – and at the same time, the version number in the main branch was set to 14, so it is 14.0-CURRENT now.

In a nutshell, this just means that the next major release branched off will be 14 – and when that happens, the main branch will instantly switch to 15.0-CURRENT.


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## SirDice (Apr 4, 2021)

I've made a crude ASCII art drawing a while ago, that shows the relation between -RELEASE, -STABLE and -CURRENT.


```
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 14.0-CURRENT
\__ 11.0-RELEASE -> p1, p2, etc  \_ 12.0-RELEASE -> p1,p2  \_ 13.0-RELEASE
 \_ 11.1-RELEASE -> p1, p2        \_ 12.1-RELEASE           \
  \_ 11.2-RELEASE -> p1, p2        \_ 12.2-RELEASE           \
   \_ 11.3-RELEASE                  \                     13-STABLE
    \_ 11.4-RELEASE                  \
     \                           12-STABLE
 11-STABLE
```


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## Berserker79 (Apr 4, 2021)

Zirias said:


> 14.0 right now is still very similar to 13.0.
> 
> The whole scheme is pretty simple: There's one main development branch where all new work is done, this always has a version number XX.0-CURRENT.
> 
> ...


Zirias, have you used version 14? If so what have you noticed different from 13? Would you recommend it? Thanks


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## SirDice (Apr 4, 2021)

Berserker79 said:


> have you used version 14? If so what have you noticed different from 13?


Development hasn't even started on it yet. It's just been created as a consequence of 13.0-CURRENT getting branched off as 13-STABLE (stable/13), which is required for 13.0-RELEASE (releng/13.0) to get branched off from 13-STABLE.



Berserker79 said:


> Would you recommend it?


No, it's the developer's playground, an _unsupported_ development release. Not the latest and greatest. New features are developed and experimented on. -CURRENT is not stable, it may not even build. Don't use it unless you plan on actively developing FreeBSD. 

Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions


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## zirias@ (Apr 4, 2021)

Berserker79 said:


> Zirias, have you used version 14? If so what have you noticed different from 13? Would you recommend it? Thanks


First of all, I'd argue there is no "version 14" yet. 14 is what's currently under development, now that 13 was branched off. And this will probably take some time 

Then, yes, I do have a VM always running -CURRENT, so it recently switched from 13-CURRENT to 14-CURRENT, just because the main dev branch made that switch. I need this VM to test my ports with ports-mgmt/poudriere. Any port should always build on any supported FreeBSD version, _plus_ the current development branch – and you can always run jails of older versions on a newer one, that's what poudriere will do.

In a nutshell: I don't care too much what changed so far, and I would never recommend running any -CURRENT without a strong reason to do so. My real infrastructure (server, routing VM, several service jails, desktop machines etc) ran on 12.2-RELEASE until recently when I decided to follow the 13.0 release candidates.


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## dave01 (Apr 4, 2021)

eternal_noob said:


> No, 12.2 is currently -RELEASE.
> 
> There's -RELEASE, -STABLE and -CURRENT.


To be fair, to new users, especially if English is not their first language, this can be confusing.  The difference between current and -CURRENT is not immediately obvious, especially when 12.2 is "currently" -RELEASE and -CURRENT isn't current but is actually the current development branch.  Then we have -STABLE, implying that -RELEASE is not "stable".


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## a6h (Apr 5, 2021)

Some notes about src in Git world:

* main and stable/* and releng/* belong to branches.
* release/*.*.* belongs to tags.

In Git, _branches_ != _tags_.

Show all tags of src:
`cd /usr/src && git tags`


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## drhowarddrfine (Apr 5, 2021)

dave01 said:


> To be fair, to new users, especially if English is not their first language, this can be confusing.


It's only confusing if one does not learn the terminology. It's been that way forever and *makes perfect sense from a core developer's point of view*. Learn the terms and the problem goes away. It's not difficult.


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## freekays (Dec 26, 2022)




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