XFree86 interim experimental source code snapshots, snaps, are fast moving versions which are used to test new features. By their very nature, snaps are unpredictable and can cause loss of service for either your driver, the X server or at very least create very erratic results. Alternatively, you may experience no problems whatsoever.
Because of those caveats, experimental snaps are best reserved for XFree86 developers (typically coders and testers), intrepid souls who are very comfortable, and unpreturbed by, working with code in flux. Questions about your test results should be reported, as always, to the XFree86 community development list.
Our experimental snaps are available from our ftp server in tarball format. They are generated automatically on a semi-monthly basis, which is currently the 7th and 21st, during the experimental phase.
These tarred-snaps are useful for those who prefer to download large source tarballs or source patches instead of using the CVS. Once downloaded, these snaps must still be compiled and installed but they are complete in themselves and there is no need to go back and take previous snaps to have a (un:-)successful build. Everything committed during the whole phase is accumulated into each new tar-snap.
Note: That's why it is always best to take the latest snap. Mixing and matching between snaps and CVS pulls is also not recommended, as our tree contains some binary files that "diff" cannot handle, so using source patches to get versions between snaps may not work reliably from one snap to the next.
As always with experimental work, community feedback is crucial so post your results to the development team (devel at XFree86 dot org) to let them know how it turns out.
XFree86 4.8.0 was released on 15 December 2008. We are currently in the development phase for the 4.9.0 release.
The CVS tag for this snapshot is xf-4_7_99_31.
XFree86 4.7.99.31 (9 December 2008) 69. Fix error path in -configure processing. (Matthieu Herrb)
Last Modified: 8 April 2010
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