What are SNAPs and RELEASEs?

Frequently Asked Questions for FreeBSD 2.X : For serious FreeBSD hackers only : What are SNAPs and RELEASEs?
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13.1. What are SNAPs and RELEASEs?

There are currently three active/semi-active branches in the FreeBSD CVS Repository:

RELENG_2_2 AKA 2.2-stable AKA "2.2 branch"
RELENG_3 AKA 3.x-stable AKA "3.0 branch"
HEAD AKA -current AKA 4.0-current

HEAD is not an actual branch tag, like the other two, it's simply a symbolic constant for "the current, non-branched development stream" which we simply refer to as -current.

Right now, -current is the 4.0 development stream and the 3.0-stable branch, RELENG_3, forked off from -current in Jan 1999.

The 2.2-stable branch, RELENG_2_2, departed -current in November 1996.

The 2.1-stable branch, RELENG_2_1_0, departed -current in September of 1994. This branch has been fully retired.