Latest Blender 2.72 Build Buildbot Question

With Blender 2.72a now out, I am wondering if builder.blender.org builds are based on 2.72a. It says v2.72.1 in the title bar.

Buildbot always include the latest in development changes to Blender, so at the very least it will be as up to date as the current release, and almost always newer.

I see on the splash screen 2.72a but 2.72.1 is just 2.72 on the splash screen.

Yes, that’s correct. A simple explanation that I hope clarifies things a bit (apologies if this comes across as condescending, I have no idea what your experience in software dev is)

When a Blender release is nigh, the “trunk” or “master”, aka, the main development path, is split off into something called a “branch” for the release build. The final release is compiled from this branch, while development on what will eventually be 2.73 gets underway in the master version. When making a 2.**a release, fixes from the master are copied into the release branch, and the a-release is built from the result of this. The buildbot, on the other hand, always builds master itself. So it will include everything that is in the a-release, but it will include other fixes and possibly new features that have been added as well.