broken link (was the real link so much harder to use?), but assuming you meant releases.mozilla.org then rc1 was a "release candidate candidate". Just relax and trust that if you're on the beta update channel the right thing will happen. If you're not on the beta channel then trust that the right bits will eventually show up at the download link.
I've been interested in helping out with testing Mozilla's products for a long time and I've started to get my feet wet, but I'm wondering, since betas only advance, and then progress into release candidates from nightlies, should I focus my attention and time on nightly builds rather than just on betas and release candidates? Or am I waaayyy off?
Can you point me to documentation on Mozilla's product life cycles and how they evolve and from what?
I'm not a coder by nature but I can certainly offer an extra set of eyes and run full functional tests on litmus and hopefully, the Mozilla Testers Learn As You Go program that I bought on Amazon will pay off. :)
To show you how green that I am, I always thought that I had to keep downloading nightly builds to get the latest. Thanks to this post, I've learned about the update channels.
> I've been interested in helping out with testing Mozilla's products > for a long time and I've started to get my feet wet,
Great :-) mozilla.dev.quality is probably the newsgroup to hang out in; Moving the conversation there.
> but I'm > wondering, since betas only advance, and then progress into release > candidates from nightlies, should I focus my attention and time on > nightly builds rather than just on betas and release candidates? > Or am I waaayyy off?
At the moment (and it would be good if someone could say where this is documented in easy-to-understand fashion) we have the Firefox 3.5 branch, which has produced alphas, betas and release candidates as well as nightlies, and the trunk, which produces only nightlies. So "nightly" could refer to a build from either.
> I'm not a coder by nature but I can certainly offer an extra set of > eyes and run full functional tests on litmus and hopefully, the > Mozilla Testers Learn As You Go program that I bought on Amazon will > pay off. :)
:-)
> To show you how green that I am, I always thought that I had to keep > downloading nightly builds to get the latest. Thanks to this post, > I've learned about the update channels.
If you are on trunk nightlies, update will give you the latest trunk nightly. If you are on branch nightlies, you will get the latest branch nightlies. But if you manually install a beta or RC, you'll just get future betas/RCs (and final).
> If you are on trunk nightlies, update will give you the latest trunk > nightly. If you are on branch nightlies, you will get the latest > branch nightlies. But if you manually install a beta or RC, you'll > just get future betas/RCs (and final).
> At least, I _think_ that's how it works :-)
Almost! :)
There are three update channels:
nightly - updates you every day to the latest nightly build beta - updates you every time we release a beta milestone release - the default, updates to official releases
On top of that, the channels are unique per major version. So, someone on the 3.5 beta channel will receive updates from beta 1 to beta 2, and once Firefox 3.5 is released, they'll also receive betas of 3.5.1, 3.5.2, etc. However, someone on the 3.0 beta channel will not receive 3.5 betas, as that's a major version jump.
Finally, release candidates are set to use the release channel. So if you've downloaded the Firefox 3.5 RC you'll be updated to each subsequent RC, and then to final, and then to final versions of the security and stability releases (3.5.x) without getting betas.
It's not the easiest soup to see through, but it works!
Mike Beltzner wrote: > On 22-Jun-09, at 4:12 AM, Gervase Markham wrote:
>> If you are on trunk nightlies, update will give you the latest trunk >> nightly. If you are on branch nightlies, you will get the latest >> branch nightlies. But if you manually install a beta or RC, you'll >> just get future betas/RCs (and final).
>> At least, I _think_ that's how it works :-)
> Almost! :)
> There are three update channels:
> nightly - updates you every day to the latest nightly build > beta - updates you every time we release a beta milestone > release - the default, updates to official releases
> On top of that, the channels are unique per major version. So, someone > on the 3.5 beta channel will receive updates from beta 1 to beta 2, and > once Firefox 3.5 is released, they'll also receive betas of 3.5.1, > 3.5.2, etc. However, someone on the 3.0 beta channel will not receive > 3.5 betas, as that's a major version jump.
> Finally, release candidates are set to use the release channel. So if > you've downloaded the Firefox 3.5 RC you'll be updated to each > subsequent RC, and then to final, and then to final versions of the > security and stability releases (3.5.x) without getting betas.
> It's not the easiest soup to see through, but it works!
Seems pretty clear. And, hoping not to offend by reopening this issue: "new and exciting" meant: "We are sending the RC through the beta channel so we get another chance to find bugs".
If correct, then I know you said that. The part that threw us off was not updating the all-beta page to the latest thing sent through the beta channel.
How can a user determine which update channel they are on? If you are concerned that users can be 'stuck' on inappropriate channels, then how about making the channel more visible? Maybe title bar: Firefox Nightly-Channel web browser Firefox Beta-Channel web browser Firefox web browser
On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:07:46 -0700, Mike Beltzner wrote: > There are three update channels:
> nightly - updates you every day to the latest nightly build > beta - updates you every time we release a beta milestone > release - the default, updates to official releases
> On top of that, the channels are unique per major version. So, someone > on the 3.5 beta channel will receive updates from beta 1 to beta 2, > and once Firefox 3.5 is released, they'll also receive betas of 3.5.1, > 3.5.2, etc. However, someone on the 3.0 beta channel will not receive > 3.5 betas, as that's a major version jump.
Ah, does that mean that if the trunk version changes from 3.6a1pre to (say) 4.0a1pre, those on the 3.6x nightly channel will stop getting updates?
> On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:07:46 -0700, Mike Beltzner wrote:
>> There are three update channels:
>> nightly - updates you every day to the latest nightly build >> beta - updates you every time we release a beta milestone >> release - the default, updates to official releases
>> On top of that, the channels are unique per major version. So, someone >> on the 3.5 beta channel will receive updates from beta 1 to beta 2, >> and once Firefox 3.5 is released, they'll also receive betas of 3.5.1, >> 3.5.2, etc. However, someone on the 3.0 beta channel will not receive >> 3.5 betas, as that's a major version jump.
> Ah, does that mean that if the trunk version changes from 3.6a1pre to > (say) 4.0a1pre, those on the 3.6x nightly channel will stop getting updates?
No, they will continue to get updates on the trunk's nightly channel.
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