What is updated between point updates on CentOS

[cuchumino]

Hello All,

I've had this question on my mind for a while, and haven't really gotten a good answer from my searches.

I understand that RHEL/CentOS continually has patches that updates security on things such as kernels and software applications.

Every once in a while (6 monthsish) there is a point release which is basically a freeze in time of a particular moment in CentOS available software.

Besides patches, is software upgraded continuously as well? I mean for example, Firefox is currently at 38.0 . Will there be a moment where firefox gets upgraded to 39, or 40 within CentOS 7?

I know that the kernel gets heavily patched, but stays the same main kernel version throughout a CentOS base version. I also know that Gnome 3 will most likely stay Gnome 3.8 throughout CentOS 7, correct?

Reason I'm asking is because I've been curious about certain software eventually getting upgraded.

[TrevorH]

Point releases tend to bring in enhancement and less severe bug fixes. Security fixes get released as and when they are required but bugs that are not security related usually wait until a point release before they get fixed.

Your example of firefox is not a good one since that is one of the few packages that does receive a version upgrade about once a year. Almost all others stay on the version that they were originally released with in the x.0 release. Firefox gets updated, as recently, from one ESR release to the next. We just went from 31 to 38.

[cuchumino]

Point releases tend to bring in enhancement and less severe bug fixes. Security fixes get released as and when they are required but bugs that are not security related usually wait until a point release before they get fixed.

Your example of firefox is not a good one since that is one of the few packages that does receive a version upgrade about once a year. Almost all others stay on the version that they were originally released with in the x.0 release. Firefox gets updated, as recently, from one ESR release to the next. We just went from 31 to 38.

Thanks Trevor for the reply. I understand this better now.

And I can understand why Firefox is updated quite regularly. Lots of new things happen in the browser world that are needed to keep up.