Going through the Ubuntu Kernel git source there are several tags, the meaning of which I'm uncertain of.
How can I find out which tag is the one currently in the repos for each version of Ubuntu? Is it okay to compile the latest tagged versions of the kernel?
Best Answer
In each Ubuntu Kernel Team git repository the Ubuntu-* tags represent the git commit which was used to build the official source package for any particular upload. For instance in the ubuntu-precice git the tag Ubuntu-3.2.0-23.36 represents the 3.2.0-23.36 source upload. Some tags have an additional -lts- component indicating they are the official LTS backport for the containing release, in the ubuntu-lucid git repository the tag Ubuntu-lts-3.0.0-18.31 represents the 3.0.0-18.31 oneiric LTS backport for lucid.
You can use the Launchpad versions page for the linux package to determine the current versions uploaded into each pocket of each release:
All recent tags should be signed by the committer to prevent modification. You should be safe to build any official tag and expect to get a substantially similar result to the uploaded binary packages for that release.