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README.md

CiviCRM Release Management

This project supports meta-activities for release-management, such as the index of release-plans and the release invitations.

Release Plans

Name Development/Alpha Period RC/Beta Period Release Date Stable Period
5.6.x Aug 2018 Sep 2018 Oct 3, 2018 Oct 2018
5.5.x Jul 2018 Aug 2018 Sep 5, 2018 Sep 2018
5.4.x Jun 2018 Jul 2018 Aug 1, 2018 Aug 2018
5.3.x May 2018 Jun 2018 Jul 3, 2018 Jul 2018
5.2.x Apr 2018 May 2018 Jun 6, 2018 Jun 2018
5.1.x Mar 2018 Apr 2018 May 2, 2018 May 2018
5.0.x Feb 2018 Mar 2018 Apr 4, 2018 Apr 2018

Unless stated otherwise, months are generally bounded by the first Wed. Thus, development in May 2018 actually lasts from 2-May-18 to 6-Jun-18.

Each period has a different policy on accepting changes:

  • During the Development/Alpha period, changes are accepted on the master branch. These should generally be bugfixes, API improvements, or small features -- but anything that passes the review process may be accepted. The branch is internally numbered as 5.x.alpha1.
  • During the RC/Beta period, a new branch (e.g. 5.0 or 5.1 or 5.2) is created. There is a general freeze on scope. However, fixes for recent regressions may still be accepted. The branch is internally numbered as 5.x.beta1. (In some unusual circumstances, it could be incremented to 5.x.beta2, etc.)
  • On the Release Date, the first 5.x.0 version is released.
  • During the Stable period, patches are not generally accepted. However, there may be patches in the following cases:
    • If a recent regression is fixed and approved for the concurrent RC/beta, then it may be back-ported to the stable. These fixes are generally released ASAP, but this is left to the discretion the maintenance/release teams.
    • The security team may approve patches for a security release. Security releases may only be published on the first or third Wednesday of the month (US/Pacific time).
    • If there are any subsequent updates, they will increment the third digit (5.x.1, 5.x.2, etc).

(For historical planning information from 4.7.x cycles, see 4.7-release-history.md.)

Philosophy

Reviewing and testing are natural, important, on-going parts of software-development, but they generally cannot be done by the original developer. All developers have a shared interest in having their changes reviewed by a neutral and competent party. The goal of the release-cycle is to match-up developers who are willing to check each other's work, and to bring in feedback from non-developers to improve quality assurance.