<div dir="ltr">Hi all,<div><br></div><div>I'm being asked the meaning of <a href="https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/tree/stable">https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/tree/stable</a> and realized I don't really know what that branch is all about. I'm likely just missing some documentation or discussion, so I apologize in advance.</div><div><br></div><div>I see in HOWTO-RELEASE, there is mention of `STABLE_BRANCH`. Is this related?</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/blob/6a231dc29bfeb734227f7e646fe7c41b59e3167d/HOWTO-RELEASE#L105-L121">https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/blob/6a231dc29bfeb734227f7e646fe7c41b59e3167d/HOWTO-RELEASE#L105-L121</a></div><div><br></div><div>It points to <a href="https://github.com/OSGeo/GDAL/settings/variables/actions/STABLE_BRANCH">https://github.com/OSGeo/GDAL/settings/variables/actions/STABLE_BRANCH</a>, and it looks like git commits are from the current "STABLE_BRANCH" (e.g., 3.13) are also pushed onto a "stable" branch:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/blob/6a231dc29bfeb734227f7e646fe7c41b59e3167d/.github/workflows/auto_tag_stable.yml#L49-L50">https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/blob/6a231dc29bfeb734227f7e646fe7c41b59e3167d/.github/workflows/auto_tag_stable.yml#L49-L50</a></div><div><br></div><div>There is a comment about a unique SHA so that ReadTheDocs gets run. It looks that this is so that the "stable" Read the Docs link always has the most recent text on the most current release branch whereas the release/X.Y will be only updated when a release happens? That doesn't seem right as right now stable is 4 hours ago and release/3/13 is 6 hours ago: <a href="https://app.readthedocs.org/projects/gdal/">https://app.readthedocs.org/projects/gdal/</a> e.g. for these:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://gdal.org/en/latest/">https://gdal.org/en/latest/</a></div><div><a href="https://gdal.org/en/stable/">https://gdal.org/en/stable/</a></div><div><a href="https://gdal.org/en/release-3.13/">https://gdal.org/en/release-3.13/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Do I have any of that correct and what is the semantic meaning of the "stable" branch that users should read into it?</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks!</div><div>-Kurt</div></div>