Homebrew How safe is Nightly/Hourly?

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I noticed that when i visit github and other sources for homebrew, there is multiple downloads to choose from. Usually i just use the one with the label in green with "LATEST RELEASE" But there is other ones and such that i guess i don't use cause i figure is outdated. Then there is the ones called Nightly/Hourly not that i know why is called that but, they aren't always advertised and sometimes harder to find. As if is not to be used or not for public display. But i see they add more stuff to it than the "Latest release" I didn't know about. For example I didn't know luma had pin locks until i used a hourly instead of normal 5.5 and decrypt9wip says 2012/6/26 was lastes release but one released today has different font, more options and even a cart to cia converter.

Usually after peforming the a9lh installation, i didn't bother trying to update any files i don't use often like the emunand9 or decypt9 and such, but I just was curious is there a reason is not listed as "Latest release" if it is released more recently? Users forget to update them on the pages archive? Should we not use them? I just need to know if there is a difference.

Well guess i don't need uncart bin anymore. Not even sure i need emunand9 anymore either if Decrypt9 does everything they do and more.

Are there any other payload tools worth updating i should know about?

 

[CoolFangs]

Nightlies and hourlies include the absolute latest changes. The of this is they are generally untested and thus may contain bugs. As far as safety, it depends what your using the software for. I wouldn't trust an unstable build of anything writing to the NAND directly, but something like Luma is usually perfectly fine.

 

[Urbanshadow]

In the ideal world versions become releases when they overcome previous versions in stability and robustness. This also neans they are methodically tested, unitary and end to end feature-wise.

In the real world, some code can become release also by need. In the scene, depends always on the devs. There are more strict devs and deliver safe enough nightlies to compare to a release of another dev, but try not to fool yourself: even if its community based, releases are more tested and bugs are usually well known and understood, with workarounds.

In the other hand those bugs may be fixed in a nightly, but the nightly might introduce new or reintroduce old bugs.

 

[chaoskagami]

In a nutshell, the nightly/git/unstable is the devs' playground. It's based on the absolute latest development, rather than a "known good" version. New things get added, and sometimes things break that we need to fix. They're provided under the assumption that you understand some shit will break or not work as intended.

Every once in a while, we stop adding new features, clean up any known bugs, and release a "stable" version based on a commit which should be in most cases bug-free, with a few new bells and whistles.

I for example, tend to mostly work on git and every once in a while go into a feature freeze and attempt to fix every outstanding issue.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

So basically the latest release is most stable compared to the hourly/nightly releases? So is the reason why it is advertised as latest. That make sense now. Thank for explaining that.

So i should only use the one labeled latest released, not the others.

 

[gnmmarechal]

So basically the latest release is most stable compared to the hourly/nightly releases? So is the reason why it is advertised as latest. That make sense now. Thank for explaining that.

So i should only use the one labeled latest released, not the others.

Which is why releases are generally labelled as "stable", separate from "nightlies", and (cuz apparently nightly is too mainstream), "hourlies".

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Okay, so what if one of those hourly/nightly has a feature that is not in the stable one, but you wanna use it like Luma Pin lock or Decrypt9 Cart to cia dumper, I mean won't people using Stable version miss out on those things or is it not worth it, and should just wait until is stable released?

 

[Urbanshadow]

Okay, so what if one of those hourly/nightly has a feature that is not in the stable one, but you wanna use it like Luma Pin lock or Decrypt9 Cart to cia dumper, I mean won't people using Stable version miss out on those things or is it not worth it, and should just wait until is stable released?

From the words of d0k3 himself, it's okay for you to use it but at your own risk. You are accepting a wild, unexpected bug can happen in the nightly you are about to use and the dev assumes no responsability from any unexpected results of it.

 

[The Catboy]

Nightlies/hourlies are hit and miss. Most of the time they are pretty stable as they normally have some testing before they are released, but that doesn't mean they are always perfect. It's really not recommended to use nightlies if you don't know what are doing. There's always a chance of a broken nightly as well, they tend to update very frequently, making it harder to get on top of.

 

[TerryG]

Okay, so what if one of those hourly/nightly has a feature that is not in the stable one, but you wanna use it like Luma Pin lock or Decrypt9 Cart to cia dumper, I mean won't people using Stable version miss out on those things or is it not worth it, and should just wait until is stable released?

Obviously if the feature is only available in the nightly/hourly builds then you would have to use an hourly/nightly build to access that feature.