Pre-release kernel versioning

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

Hi all!

I'd like to put a old but still valid discussion on the table again
where a solution never was found: Pre-release kernel versioning.

In short: Kernel like for example kernel-2.6.20-1.3066.fc7 are in
reality 2.6.21-rc6-git5. That's not only confusing to users, it also
breaks outside kernel modules sometimes; just yesterday I saw a patch in
3rd party repo applied that did this...

+-#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2,6,21)
++#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2,6,20)

...to make it compile against the kernel from FC4-test4 (no idea if it
helped, but I had to apply similar patches in the past nyself to make
somethign work), as the kernels in rawhide until they switched to
2.6.21-final announces itself as 2.6.20-1.3066.fc7 instead of
2.6.21-rc6-git5, as upstream would do.

I don't want to get further into the details if I don't have to, as this
stuff was discussed multiple times already on mailing lists. The last
time was here:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-March/msg00897.html

So, what will we do in the future? Can we (after F7 is out and rawhide
rolls again) please switch to something less confusing where version
somehow allows normal users to clearly see what kernel they got? And one
that doesn't confuse outside modules? Something like

kernel-2.6.22-1.3200.fc7.rc2.git15

maybe?

CU
thl