From a50c446853e738dfdf0967d753831f0935514603 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mark Olesen <Mark.Olesen@esi-group.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2019 08:50:57 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] STYLE: update notes about patch level on development branches

- previously stated that the patch level would be 0, but this would
  necessitate many revert commits after merging in the master branch.
  It is better to leave the meaning open.
---
 META-INFO/README.md | 6 ++++--
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/META-INFO/README.md b/META-INFO/README.md
index 3ac2880aa31..f84ff97807e 100644
--- a/META-INFO/README.md
+++ b/META-INFO/README.md
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ source archives.
 
 - 6-digit year-month-day (YYMMDD) integer corresponding to a patch-level
   for the given **released** API.
-  Development branches have a patch value of `0`.
 
 - Format is year-month-day, as per `date +%y%m%d`.
 
@@ -53,6 +52,9 @@ source archives.
   day, the patch level would jump accordingly.
 
 The patch value is only meaningful together with the api value.
+However, for *development* branches, the patch level should not be
+ascribed much meaning -- it can be `0` or have a value corresponding
+to the last merge with a *maintenance* (*eg*, `master`) branch.
 
 
 ## Flow of information
@@ -81,4 +83,4 @@ contains more permanent information, whereas the `build-info` is more
 transient in nature.
 
 ----
-2018-11-29
+2019-01-23
-- 
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