Re: Which rsync version is current?

[Ken Brown <kbrown@cornell.edu>]

[Adding the rsync maintainer to the Cc in case he wants to add something.]

On 5/27/2020 3:34 PM, Bill Stewart wrote:
> On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 1:20 PM Andrey Repin wrote:
> 
>>> When I run rsync --version, I see this:
>>>
>>> rsync  version 3.2.0dev  protocol version 31
>>>
>>> However the Cygwin Setup program says that my rsync is current and is
>>> listed as this version:
>>>
>>> 3.1.3+20200429+gitf7746d0-1
>>>
>>> rsync.samba.org says the current version is 3.1.3.
>>>
>>> So...what's actually the latest? What's the difference between these?
>>
>> Run `which rsync` to see which one is responding to you.
>>
>> 3.2-dev is likely a snapshot from ongoing development branch.
> 
> `which rsync` outputs
> 
> /usr/bin/rsync
> 
> as expected.
> 
> What I am saying is that the Setup program says the installed version
> is 3.1.3+20200429+gitf7746d0-1.

The version number shown by setup indicates that the maintainer built the 
package from a snapshot of the upstream git repository rather than from a stable 
release.  The maintainer chose this version number, presumably to indicate that 
the snapshot was made on 2020-04-29 after git commit f7746d0.

> For that installed version, `rsync --version` says the version is 3.2.0dev

That version number is determined by the upstream rsync developers, and it 
indicates that the build is based on a snapshot of the development branch for a 
future 3.2.0 release.  (This is what Andrey was saying.)

The latest stable release, 3.1.3, is two years old.  I'm sure Jari had good 
reasons for wanting to make a more recent version available.

Ken