# Ruby versions, snapshots and SVN branches - I'm confused

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-versions-snapshots-and-svn-branches-im-confused/172237>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 17, 2009, 7:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-versions-snapshots-and-svn-branches-im-confused/172237 "2009-07-17T07:29:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amin1426)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 7:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-versions-snapshots-and-svn-branches-im-confused/172237/1 "2009-07-17T07:29:21Z")

</div>

The ruby down load page has…

[http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/](http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/)

```
* Ruby 1.9.1-p129 (md5: c71f413514ee6341c627be2957023a5c) Stable
  Version (recommended)

```

Which suggests that the 1.9.1 branch is the stable branch

```
* Stable Snapshot This is tar’ed and gzip’ed file of the latest
  stable SVN. It should be better than the last stable release.

```

However this file corresponds to the  
[http://svn.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/branches/ruby\_1\_8/](http://svn.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/branches/ruby_1_8/)  
code. And shows up as version 1.8.8

ie. Very far from the 1.9.1 “stable version recommended”.

```
 * Nightly Snapshot This is tar’ed and gzip’ed file of the latest
   SVN. It may contain unfixed problems.

```

What does this correspond to?

Is there a “Stable Snapshot” of the 1.9.1 branch?

The ruby issue tracker lists…  
[http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/](http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/)  
Popular Projects

```
 * Ruby 1.9 - Edge version of Ruby
       o Ruby 1.9.1 - The latest stable release of Ruby 1.9 series.

 * Ruby 1.8 - Stable development version of Ruby

       o Ruby 1.8.6 - An ancient stable release of Ruby that Rails 

```

users love

```
       o Ruby 1.8.7 - A stable release of Ruby for bridging a gap
         between the 1.8 and 1.9.

```

Which doesn’t even mention 1.8.8

John C. Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639  
Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632  
PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
New Zealand

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amin1426)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 8:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-versions-snapshots-and-svn-branches-im-confused/172237/2 "2009-07-17T08:16:06Z")

</div>

Unless you have need to be “uber cutting-edge” or you have a specific  
bug  
that you were hitting in p129 and are looking for the fix - I would just  
take p129 of 1.9.1

As to the website - I would guess it’s more of a housekeeping issue than  
anything else. It appears that “stable” snapshot is the 1.8 branch  
snapshot  
and the “nightly” snapshot is the 1.9 branch. They are both apparantly  
created daily so they are just simple snapshots and not indicative of  
“stability”.

John