Which CVS release procedure?

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-12-19 08:42:52

It has been suggested by several people that we do some form of a 
pre-release code freeze well-prior to the actual release.  This will give 
us time to resolve regression test failures before the actual release.

Two different CVS procedures were suggested for implementing the freeze:

(1)  At the freeze date, create a branch for the release.  Apply fixes to 
that branch until satisfied.  After the release, merge the branch back into 
the main trunk.

(2)  At the freeze date, tag for release.  Apply fixes to the main trunk 
(updating the tag) until satisfied.  No post-release merge is required.

With my limited CVS experience, it looks like (1) is more suitable to 
projects where there is a long time between freeze and release, and many 
fixes will have to be applied to the branch.  (2) seems simpler for the 
Boost case, where the time between freeze and release will be short, and 
the number of fixes is more likely to be small.

But I'd like to hear from more experienced CVS users.  Which procedure 
works best in practice?

--Beman