mirror of
https://github.com/django/django.git
synced 2024-12-23 17:46:27 +00:00
241 lines
9.0 KiB
Plaintext
241 lines
9.0 KiB
Plaintext
========================
|
|
Django's release process
|
|
========================
|
|
|
|
.. _official-releases:
|
|
|
|
Official releases
|
|
=================
|
|
|
|
Since version 1.0, Django's release numbering works as follows:
|
|
|
|
* Versions are numbered in the form ``A.B`` or ``A.B.C``.
|
|
|
|
* ``A.B`` is the *feature release* version number. Each version will be mostly
|
|
backwards compatible with the previous release. Exceptions to this rule will
|
|
be listed in the release notes.
|
|
|
|
* ``C`` is the *patch release* version number, which is incremented for bugfix
|
|
and security releases. These releases will be 100% backwards-compatible with
|
|
the previous patch release. The only exception is when a security or data
|
|
loss issue can't be fixed without breaking backwards-compatibility. If this
|
|
happens, the release notes will provide detailed upgrade instructions.
|
|
|
|
* Before a new feature release, we'll make alpha, beta, and release candidate
|
|
releases. These are of the form ``A.B alpha/beta/rc N``, which means the
|
|
``Nth`` alpha/beta/release candidate of version ``A.B``.
|
|
|
|
In git, each Django release will have a tag indicating its version number,
|
|
signed with the Django release key. Additionally, each release series has its
|
|
own branch, called ``stable/A.B.x``, and bugfix/security releases will be
|
|
issued from those branches.
|
|
|
|
For more information about how the Django project issues new releases for
|
|
security purposes, please see :doc:`our security policies <security>`.
|
|
|
|
.. glossary::
|
|
|
|
Feature release
|
|
Feature releases (A.B, A.B+1, etc.) will happen roughly every eight months
|
|
-- see `release process`_ for details. These releases will contain new
|
|
features, improvements to existing features, and such.
|
|
|
|
Patch release
|
|
Patch releases (A.B.C, A.B.C+1, etc.) will be issued as needed, to fix
|
|
bugs and/or security issues.
|
|
|
|
These releases will be 100% compatible with the associated feature release,
|
|
unless this is impossible for security reasons or to prevent data loss.
|
|
So the answer to "should I upgrade to the latest patch release?" will always
|
|
be "yes."
|
|
|
|
Long-term support release
|
|
Certain feature releases will be designated as long-term support (LTS)
|
|
releases. These releases will get security and data loss fixes applied for
|
|
a guaranteed period of time, typically three years.
|
|
|
|
See `the download page`_ for the releases that have been designated for
|
|
long-term support.
|
|
|
|
.. _the download page: https://www.djangoproject.com/download/
|
|
|
|
Release cadence
|
|
===============
|
|
|
|
Starting with Django 2.0, version numbers will use a loose form of `semantic
|
|
versioning <http://semver.org/>`_ such that each version following an LTS will
|
|
bump to the next "dot zero" version. For example: 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 (LTS), 3.0,
|
|
3.1, 3.2 (LTS), etc.
|
|
|
|
SemVer makes it easier to see at a glance how compatible releases are with each
|
|
other. It also helps to anticipate when compatibility shims will be removed.
|
|
It's not a pure form of SemVer as each feature release will continue to have a
|
|
few documented backwards incompatibilities where a deprecation path isn't
|
|
possible or not worth the cost. Also, deprecations started in an LTS release
|
|
(X.2) will be dropped in a non-dot-zero release (Y.1) to accommodate our policy
|
|
of keeping deprecation shims for at least two feature releases. Read on to the
|
|
next section for an example.
|
|
|
|
.. _internal-release-deprecation-policy:
|
|
|
|
Deprecation policy
|
|
==================
|
|
|
|
A feature release may deprecate certain features from previous releases. If a
|
|
feature is deprecated in feature release A.x, it will continue to work in all
|
|
A.x versions (for all versions of x) but raise warnings. Deprecated features
|
|
will be removed in the B.0 release, or B.1 for features deprecated in the last
|
|
A.x feature release to ensure deprecations are done over at least 2 feature
|
|
releases.
|
|
|
|
So, for example, if we decided to start the deprecation of a function in
|
|
Django 4.2:
|
|
|
|
* Django 4.2 will contain a backwards-compatible replica of the function which
|
|
will raise a ``RemovedInDjango51Warning``.
|
|
|
|
* Django 5.0 (the version that follows 4.2) will still contain the
|
|
backwards-compatible replica.
|
|
|
|
* Django 5.1 will remove the feature outright.
|
|
|
|
The warnings are silent by default. You can turn on display of these warnings
|
|
with the ``python -Wd`` option.
|
|
|
|
A more generic example:
|
|
|
|
* X.0
|
|
* X.1
|
|
* X.2 LTS
|
|
* Y.0: Drop deprecation shims added in X.0 and X.1.
|
|
* Y.1: Drop deprecation shims added in X.2.
|
|
* Y.2 LTS: No deprecation shims dropped (while Y.0 is no longer supported,
|
|
third-party apps need to maintain compatibility back to X.2 LTS to ease
|
|
LTS to LTS upgrades).
|
|
* Z.0: Drop deprecation shims added in Y.0 and Y.1.
|
|
|
|
.. _backwards-compatibility-policy:
|
|
|
|
Supported versions
|
|
==================
|
|
|
|
At any moment in time, Django's developer team will support a set of releases to
|
|
varying levels. See `the supported versions section
|
|
<https://www.djangoproject.com/download/#supported-versions>`_ of the download
|
|
page for the current state of support for each version.
|
|
|
|
* The current development master will get new features and bug fixes
|
|
requiring non-trivial refactoring.
|
|
|
|
* Patches applied to the master branch must also be applied to the last feature
|
|
release branch, to be released in the next patch release of that feature
|
|
series, when they fix critical problems:
|
|
|
|
* Security issues.
|
|
|
|
* Data loss bugs.
|
|
|
|
* Crashing bugs.
|
|
|
|
* Major functionality bugs in newly-introduced features.
|
|
|
|
* Regressions from older versions of Django.
|
|
|
|
The rule of thumb is that fixes will be backported to the last feature
|
|
release for bugs that would have prevented a release in the first place
|
|
(release blockers).
|
|
|
|
* Security fixes and data loss bugs will be applied to the current master, the
|
|
last two feature release branches, and any other supported long-term
|
|
support release branches.
|
|
|
|
* Documentation fixes generally will be more freely backported to the last
|
|
release branch. That's because it's highly advantageous to have the docs for
|
|
the last release be up-to-date and correct, and the risk of introducing
|
|
regressions is much less of a concern.
|
|
|
|
As a concrete example, consider a moment in time halfway between the release of
|
|
Django 5.1 and 5.2. At this point in time:
|
|
|
|
* Features will be added to development master, to be released as Django 5.2.
|
|
|
|
* Critical bug fixes will be applied to the ``stable/5.1.x`` branch, and
|
|
released as 5.1.1, 5.1.2, etc.
|
|
|
|
* Security fixes and bug fixes for data loss issues will be applied to
|
|
``master`` and to the ``stable/5.1.x``, ``stable/5.0.x``, and
|
|
``stable/4.2.x`` (LTS) branches. They will trigger the release of ``5.1.1``,
|
|
``5.0.5``, ``4.2.8``, etc.
|
|
|
|
* Documentation fixes will be applied to master, and, if easily backported, to
|
|
the latest stable branch, ``5.1.x``.
|
|
|
|
.. _release-process:
|
|
|
|
Release process
|
|
===============
|
|
|
|
Django uses a time-based release schedule, with feature releases every eight
|
|
months or so.
|
|
|
|
After each feature release, the release manager will announce a timeline for
|
|
the next feature release.
|
|
|
|
Release cycle
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
Each release cycle consists of three parts:
|
|
|
|
Phase one: feature proposal
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
The first phase of the release process will include figuring out what major
|
|
features to include in the next version. This should include a good deal of
|
|
preliminary work on those features -- working code trumps grand design.
|
|
|
|
Major features for an upcoming release will be added to the wiki roadmap page,
|
|
e.g. https://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/Version1.11Roadmap.
|
|
|
|
Phase two: development
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
The second part of the release schedule is the "heads-down" working period.
|
|
Using the roadmap produced at the end of phase one, we'll all work very hard to
|
|
get everything on it done.
|
|
|
|
At the end of phase two, any unfinished features will be postponed until the
|
|
next release.
|
|
|
|
Phase two will culminate with an alpha release. At this point, the
|
|
``stable/A.B.x`` branch will be forked from ``master``.
|
|
|
|
Phase three: bugfixes
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
The last part of a release cycle is spent fixing bugs -- no new features will
|
|
be accepted during this time. We'll try to release a beta release one month
|
|
after the alpha and a release candidate one month after the beta.
|
|
|
|
The release candidate marks the string freeze, and it happens at least two
|
|
weeks before the final release. After this point, new translatable strings
|
|
must not be added.
|
|
|
|
During this phase, committers will be more and more conservative with
|
|
backports, to avoid introducing regressions. After the release candidate, only
|
|
release blockers and documentation fixes should be backported.
|
|
|
|
In parallel to this phase, ``master`` can receive new features, to be released
|
|
in the ``A.B+1`` cycle.
|
|
|
|
Bug-fix releases
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
After a feature release (e.g. A.B), the previous release will go into bugfix
|
|
mode.
|
|
|
|
The branch for the previous feature release (e.g. ``stable/A.B-1.x``) will
|
|
include bugfixes. Critical bugs fixed on master must *also* be fixed on the
|
|
bugfix branch; this means that commits need to cleanly separate bug fixes from
|
|
feature additions. The developer who commits a fix to master will be
|
|
responsible for also applying the fix to the current bugfix branch.
|