Any release of DPDK can be designated as a Stable Release if a
maintainer volunteers to maintain it and there is a commitment from major
-contributors to validate it before releases. If a release is to be designated
-as a Stable Release, it should be done by 1 month after the master release.
+contributors to validate it before releases.
+If a version is to be a "Stable Release", it should be designated as such
+within one month of that version being initially released.
A Stable Release is used to backport fixes from an ``N`` release back to an
``N-1`` release, for example, from 16.11 to 16.07.
What changes should be backported
---------------------------------
-Backporting should be limited to bug fixes. All patches accepted on the master
+Backporting should be limited to bug fixes. All patches accepted on the main
branch with a Fixes: tag should be backported to the relevant stable/LTS
branches, unless the submitter indicates otherwise. If there are exceptions,
they will be discussed on the mailing lists.
The Stable and LTS release are coordinated on the stable@dpdk.org mailing
list.
-All fix patches to the master branch that are candidates for backporting
+All fix patches to the main branch that are candidates for backporting
should also be CCed to the `stable@dpdk.org <https://mails.dpdk.org/listinfo/stable>`_
mailing list.