Understanding linux kernel and patches releases

Question

I would like to better understand how linux kernel / patches releases work.

For example, if I open www.kernel.org today (Dec 12, 2013) the main download (yellow button) takes me to "linux-3.12.5.tar.xx" that is the latest stable. This is clear.

But if I move into "https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/", I can find (among many archives):

(1) linux-3.12.tar.gz

(2) patch-3.12.5.gz

(3) patch-3.12.gz

So the first question: is "linux-3.12.5" = (1)linux-3.12 "+" (2)patch-3.12.5?

If so, what is "patch-3.12"(3) for ? is "linux-3.12" = linux-3.11 "+" (3)patch-3.12 like above?

Thanks!

Answer 1

According to https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/README (line 95 onward):

Unlike patches for the 3.x kernels, patches for the 3.x.y kernels (also known as the -stable kernels) are not incremental but instead apply directly to the base 3.x kernel. For example, if your base kernel is 3.0 and you want to apply the 3.0.3 patch, you must not first apply the 3.0.1 and 3.0.2 patches. Similarly, if you are running kernel version 3.0.2 and want to jump to 3.0.3, you must first reverse the 3.0.2 patch (that is, patch -R) before applying the 3.0.3 patch. You can read more on this in Documentation/applying-patches.txt

Thanks to n.m. for linking source!