The upstream systemd git repo at https://github.com/systemd/systemd
contains the main branch that progresses at a quick pace,
continuously bringing both bugfixes and new features.
New releases are tagged as vNNN on this branch.
In addition to the main branch,
the repo contains a number of branches for stable point updates for a given release,
called vNNN-stable.
Stable releases are tagged as vNNN.X on those branches.
See list of branches
and pull requests for stable branches.
Distributions usually prefer basing their releases on those stable branches. Stable branches are typically managed by distribution maintainers on an as-needed basis.
Stable branches for releases up to 255 are available from https://github.com/systemd/systemd-stable.
If you are using a particular version and find yourself backporting several patches, consider pushing a stable branch here for that version so others can benefit.
Please contact us if you are interested.
The following types of commits are cherry-picked onto those branches:
Please try to ensure that anything backported to the stable repository is done
with the git cherry-pick -x option such that text stating the original SHA1 is added into the commit message.
This makes it easier to check where the code came from
(as sometimes it is necessary to add small fixes as new code due to the upstream refactors)
that are deemed too invasive to backport as a stable patch.
Pull requests for the stable branches should be tagged with stable-branch.
Pull requests that shall be backported to stable releases,
should be tagged with needs-stable-backport.
See pull requests marked for backporting.
If only some commits should be backported, this should be mentioned in the pull request.
If the backport is not obvious, additional justification can also be provided in the pull request.