doc: update example output in FreeBSD guide

[dpdk.git] / doc / guides / contributing / stable.rst

diff --git a/doc/guides/contributing/stable.rst b/doc/guides/contributing/stable.rst
index 4214103..4d38bb8 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/guides/contributing/stable.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/contributing/stable.rst
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
     Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors
 
-.. stable_lts_releases:
+.. _stable_lts_releases:
 
 DPDK Stable Releases and Long Term Support
 ==========================================
@@ -26,7 +26,9 @@ Stable Releases
 ---------------
 
 Any major release of DPDK can be designated as a Stable Release if a
-maintainer volunteers to maintain it.
+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.
 
 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.
@@ -46,9 +48,13 @@ LTS Release
 
 A stable release can be designated as an LTS release based on community
 agreement and a commitment from a maintainer. The current policy is that each
-year's November release will be maintained as an LTS for 2 years.
+year's November (X.11) release will be maintained as an LTS for 2 years.
 
-The current DPDK LTS releases are 17.11 and 18.11.
+After the X.11 release, an LTS branch will be created for it at
+http://git.dpdk.org/dpdk-stable where bugfixes will be backported to.
+
+A LTS release may align with the declaration of a new major ABI version,
+please read the :doc:`abi_policy` for more information.
 
 It is anticipated that there will be at least 4 releases per year of the LTS
 or approximately 1 every 3 months. However, the cadence can be shorter or
@@ -56,6 +62,11 @@ longer depending on the number and criticality of the backported
 fixes. Releases should be coordinated with the validation engineers to ensure
 that a tagged release has been tested.
 
+The current maintained LTS branches are 17.11 and 18.11.
+
+At the end of the 2 years, a final X.11.N release will be made and at that
+point the LTS branch will no longer be maintained with no further releases.
+
 
 What changes should be backported
 ---------------------------------
@@ -111,10 +122,3 @@ A Stable Release will be released by:
   list.
 
 Stable releases are available on the `dpdk.org download page <http://core.dpdk.org/download/>`_.
-
-
-ABI
----
-
-The Stable Release should not be seen as a way of breaking or circumventing
-the DPDK ABI policy.