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Initial Software EOL policy #37

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Feb 4, 2016
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Initial Software EOL policy #37

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Initial EOL policy
btcdrak Jan 15, 2016
7730ccc
Fix unit test: permalink should end in trailing slash.
btcdrak Feb 4, 2016
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3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions _data/navigation.yml
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -48,6 +48,9 @@ en:
bips:
title: "Supported BIPs"
url: "/en/bips"
bips:
title: "Lifecycle"
url: "/en/lifecycle"
de:
home:
title: "Bitcoin Core"
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7 changes: 7 additions & 0 deletions _includes/posts/_maintenance-table.md
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@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
| 0.8 | 2013-02-19 | 2014-03-19 | 2013-12-09 |
| 0.9 | 2014-03-19 | 2015-02-16 | 2016-02-31 |
| 0.10 | 2015-02-16 | 2016-02-31 | 2017-02-31 |
| 0.11 | 2015-07-12 | after v0.13 | TBA |
| 0.12 | TBA | after v0.14 | TBA |

\* TBA: to be announced
31 changes: 31 additions & 0 deletions _posts/en/pages/2016-01-15-lifecycle.md
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---
title: Software Life Cycle
name: software-life-cycle
id: en-software-life-cycle
permalink: /en/lifecycle/
layout: page
type: pages
lang: en
share: false
version: 1
---
This document describes the life-cycle of the Bitcoin Core software package released by the Bitcoin Core project. It is in line with standard maintenance policy across commercial software.

We aim to make a major release every 6-7 month, These will be numbered 0.11, 0.12 etc.

We will provide maintenance "minor releases" that fix bugs within the major releases. We may add minor features to point releases where necessary, for example when
back-porting consensus rule changes such as soft forks. Minor releases will be numbered 0.11.1, 0.11.2, 0.12.1, 0.12.2 etc.

We maintain the major versions until their "Maintenance End". We generally maintain the current and previous major release. So if the current release is 0.12, then 0.11 is also considered maintained. Once 0.13 is released, then 0.11 would be considered at it's "Maintenance End". The older the major release, the more critical issues have to be to get backported to it, and the more to warrant a new minor release. Once software has reached the "Maintenance End" period it will only receive critical security fixes until the EOL date. After EOL, users must upgrade to a later version to receive security updates.

Please note that minor versions get bugfixes, translation updates, and soft forks. Translation on [Transifex][bitcoin-transifex-link] is only open for the last two major releases.

For example, major version 0.9 was released on 2014-03-19 and we provided maintenance fixes (point releases) until 2015-02-16. Critical security issues would still be continue to be fixed until the End-Of-Life "EOL" date of 2016-02-31. However, to take advantage of bug fixes, you would have to upgrade to a later major version.

Once EOL is reached, you will need to upgrade to a newer version.

| Version | Release Date | Maintenance End | End of Life |
|---------|--------------|-----------------|-------------|
{% include posts/_maintenance-table.md %}

[bitcoin-transifex-link]: https://www.transifex.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/