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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.15.x | May 2019 | Jun 2019 | Jul ?, 2019 | Jul 2019 |
| 5.14.x | Apr 2019 | May 2019 | Jun ?, 2019 | Jun 2019 |
| 5.13.x | Mar 2019 | Apr 2019 | May ?, 2019 | May 2019 plus ESR |
| 5.12.x | Feb 2019 | Mar 2019 | Apr ?, 2019 | Apr 2019 |
| 5.11.x | Jan 2019 | Feb 2019 | Mar ?, 2019 | Mar 2019 |
| 5.10.x | Dec 2018 | Jan 2019 | Feb 7, 2019 | Feb 2019 |
| 5.9.x | Nov 2018 | Dec 2018 | Jan 2, 2019 | Jan 2019 |
| 5.8.x | Oct 2018 | Nov 2018 | Dec 5, 2018 | Dec 2018 |
| 5.7.x | Sep 2018 | Oct 2018 | Nov 7, 2018 | Nov 2018 plus ESR |
| 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
masterbranch. 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 as5.x.alpha1. - During the RC/Beta period, a new branch (e.g.
5.0or5.1or5.2) is created. There is a general freeze on scope. However, fixes for recent regressions may still be accepted. The branch is internally numbered as5.x.beta1. (In some unusual circumstances, it could be incremented to5.x.beta2, etc.) - On the Release Date, the first
5.x.0version 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.