(mysql.info) release-philosophy

 
 2.1.2.4 Release Philosophy--No Known Bugs in Releases
 .....................................................
 
 We put a lot of time and effort into making our releases bug-free. We
 haven't released a single MySQL version with any _known_ fatal
 repeatable bugs. (A `fatal' bug is something that crashes MySQL under
 normal usage, produces incorrect answers for normal queries, or has a
 security problem.)
 
 We have documented all open problems, bugs, and issues that are
 dependent on design decisions. See  bugs.
 
 Our aim is to fix everything that is fixable without making a stable
 MySQL version less stable. In certain cases, this means we can fix an
 issue in the development versions, but not in the stable (production)
 version. Naturally, we document such issues so that users are aware of
 them.
 
 Here is a description of our build process:
 
    * We monitor bugs from our customer support list, the bugs database
      at `http://bugs.mysql.com/', and the MySQL external mailing lists.
 
    * All reported bugs for live versions are entered into the bugs
      database.
 
    * When we fix a bug, we always try to make a test case for it and
      include it into our test system to ensure that the bug can never
      recur without being detected. (About 90% of all fixed bugs have
      test cases.)
 
    * We create test cases for each new feature that we add to MySQL.
 
    * Before we start to build a new MySQL release, we ensure that all
      reported repeatable bugs for that MySQL version (3.23.x, 4.0.x,
      4.1.x, 5.0.x, 5.1.x, and so on) are fixed.  If something is
      impossible to fix due to some internal design decision in MySQL,
      we document this in the manual.  See  bugs.
 
    * We do a build on all platforms for which we support binaries and
      run our test suite and benchmark suite on all of them.
 
    * We do not publish a binary for a platform for which the test or
      benchmark suite fails. If the problem is due to a general error in
      the source, we fix it and do the build plus tests on all systems
      again from scratch.
 
    * The build and test process takes a week. If we receive a report
      regarding a fatal bug during this process (for example, one that
      causes a core dump), we fix the problem and restart the build
      process.
 
    * After publishing the binaries on `http://dev.mysql.com/', we send
      out an announcement message to the `mysql' and `announce' mailing
      lists. See  mailing-lists. The announcement message
      contains a list of all changes to the release and any known
      problems with the release. The *Known Problems* section in the
      release notes has been needed for only a handful of releases.
 
    * To quickly give our users access to the latest MySQL features, we
      try to produce a new MySQL release every 4-8 weeks. Source code
      snapshots are built daily and are available at
      `http://downloads.mysql.com/snapshots.php'.
 
    * If, despite our best efforts, we receive any bug reports after a
      release is issued that a critical problem exists for the build on
      a specific platform, we fix it at once and build a new `'a''
      release for that platform. Thanks to our large user base, problems
      are found and resolved very quickly.
 
    * Our track record for making stable releases is quite good.  In the
      last 150 releases, we had to do a new build for fewer than 10 of
      them. In three of these cases, the bug was a faulty `glibc'
      library on one of our build machines that took us a long time to
      track down.
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