Linux Kernel Release Notes and Patches

Question

I would like to better understand how the linux kernel / patches versions work.

For example, if I open www.kernel.org today (December 12, 2013), the main download (yellow button) will lead me to "linux-3.12.5.tar.xx", which is the last stable one. It's clear.

But if I go to " https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/ , I can find (among many archives):

(1) linux-3.12.tar.gz

(2) patch-3.12.5.gz

(3) patch-3.12.gz

So the first question is: "linux-3.12.5" = (1) linux-3.12 "+" (2) patch-3.12.5?

If so, what is patch-3.12 (3)? "linux-3.12" = linux-3.11 "+" (3) patch-3.12 as above?

Thanks!

Answer 1

According to https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/README (line 95):

Unlike patches for 3.x kernels, patches for 3.xy kernels (also known as -stable kernels) are not incremental, but instead apply directly to the 3.x base kernel. For example, if your Kernel base is 3.0, and you want to apply patch 3.0.3, you should not first apply the 3.0.1 and 3.0.2 fixes. Similarly, if you are running kernel version 3.0.2 and want to upgrade to 3.0.3, you must first reverse patch 3.0.2 (i.e. patch -R) before applying patch 3.0.3. You can read more about this in Documentation / application-patches.txt

Thanks nm for source binding!