Kernel versioning

Versioning

New-style versioning

Currently all new OpenVZ kernels has a simple version like 2.6.n-ovzXXX

• 2.6.n is a vanilla kernel version, e.g. 2.6.20 or 2.6.22, which this OpenVZ kernel is based on;
• ovzXXX is the OpenVZ kernel version, e.g. ovz001 for the very first one.

Old-style versioning

Some time ago OpenVZ kernel versions were named like 2.6.n-XXXtestYYY.z and 2.6.n-XXXstabYYY.z.

• 2.6.n is a vanilla kernel version (i.e. the one from kernel.org) which this OpenVZ kernel is based on.
• XXX is a major OpenVZ kernel version number, which usually changes from release to release, or when dramatic changes to the kernel are made.
• test series kernels are unstable kernel releases, which are usually under extensive development, while stab series kernels are more or less stable kernel releases which are close to be released or are in production already.
• YYY is a minor OpenVZ kernel version number, which changes from build to build, when bugfixes or small feature changes were made.
• z is an add-on number; it is used as rpm's Release field and in most cases is set to 1.

This style is kept for some kernels that started before switching to the new versioning.

Cycle

Usual kernel development cycle looks like this:

021test000 → 021test001 → ... → 021test012 → here kernel is declared stable → 021stab000 → 021stab001 → ... → 021stab023

Branches

A few kernel branches are being developed in parallel. For example, as of 27th of August, 2007, there are few active branches:

• stable, based on RHEL4-2.6.9
• stable, based on RHEL5-2.6.18
• stable, based on vanilla 2.6.18
• development, based on 2.6.22
• SUSE10, based on latest SUSE10 kernel