Re: strange emacs 21.4 on ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/emacs

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Juan LEON Lahoz Garcia <juanleon1@gmail.com> writes:

> It seems that, (I supposse) due some error, a emacs 21.4 is in
> ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/.
>
> The file seems like a 21.3 version, but some sites (like distrowatch)
> that uses script to check latest versions are reporting 21.4 as out.
>
> Am I wrong?

Yes, you are.  according to the diffs, we have

diff -rc2 emacs-21.3/README emacs-21.4/README
*** emacs-21.3/README	Tue Mar 18 10:20:35 2003
--- emacs-21.4/README	Wed Feb  2 02:34:12 2005
***************
*** 1,4 ****
! This directory tree holds version 21.3 of GNU Emacs, the extensible,
! customizable, self-documenting real-time display editor.
  
  You may encounter bugs in this release.  If you do, please report
--- 1,7 ----
! This directory tree holds version 21.4 of GNU Emacs, the extensible,
! customizable, self-documenting real-time display editor.  This release
! was made to fix a security bug, so most directories have no changes
! from 21.3.  The documentation still identifies the version as 21.3,
! since it has not been altered.
  
  You may encounter bugs in this release.  If you do, please report

  
diff -rc2 emacs-21.3/lib-src/ChangeLog emacs-21.4/lib-src/ChangeLog
*** emacs-21.3/lib-src/ChangeLog	Tue Mar 18 10:15:30 2003
--- emacs-21.4/lib-src/ChangeLog	Sun Feb  6 04:09:17 2005
***************
*** 1,2 ****
--- 1,8 ----
+ 2005-02-06  Richard M. Stallman  <rms@gnu.org>
+ 
+ 	* Version 21.4 released.
+ 
+ 	* movemail.c (popmail): Fix call to `error'.
+ 
  2003-03-18  Francesco Potortì  <pot@gnu.org>
  
diff -rc2 emacs-21.3/lib-src/movemail.c emacs-21.4/lib-src/movemail.c
*** emacs-21.3/lib-src/movemail.c	Fri Feb 15 07:07:14 2002
--- emacs-21.4/lib-src/movemail.c	Wed Feb  2 02:31:17 2005
***************
*** 788,792 ****
        if (pop_retr (server, i, mbf) != OK)
  	{
! 	  error (Errmsg, 0, 0);
  	  close (mbfi);
  	  return (1);
--- 788,792 ----
        if (pop_retr (server, i, mbf) != OK)
  	{
! 	  error ("%s", Errmsg, 0);
  	  close (mbfi);
  	  return (1);


That's pretty much it.  Richard, you should have asked anybody about
this.  After long and painful discussions on this list, we had agreed
that the new version of Emacs with the changes of years in it will be
called 21.4.  People have relied on it in announcements ("to be
expected in Emacs-21.4").  There was a long discussion about whether
the next big release should be called 22.0 and finally we agreed that
21.4 it would be.

So this bug fix release should have been called 21.3.1 or 21.3-b or
whatever.

I could just cry.  Now, AGAIN, I have a whole slew of documentation,
help files, announcements and stuff like that rendered false and junk
and misleading.  This was the _exact_ reason that it was proposed that
22.0 would become the next big version number, and it was turned down
finally by everybody agreeing that we'd make it 21.4 instead.

And now this.  I can't say how much hairtearing this will mean.  Is
there any chance that we get this changed to 21.3.1 or 21.3-b or
something like that _before_ the news spreads?

Please, Richard?

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum