Confused about EOL for .NET Standard versions

[pushkin-]

I am having trouble understanding EOL support for .NET Standard versions. I could only find information about .NET Core here.

I am planning on using .NET Core 3.1. From what I've found out, I can target .NET Standard 2.1 and anything below it.

Ideally, I would like my .NET Framework code to also reference the .NET Standard code, which means that I have to use .NET Standard 2.0. However, my concern is that .NET Standard 2.0's support will end soonish, at least compared to 2.1.

Is that correct? What is EOL for .NET Standard 2.0?

I did also read that Standard versions are fixed/immutable so new APIs get added to new Standard versions (and so maintenance perhaps doesn't make sense for Standard; new versions just get created). Maybe that partially answers my question.

[bartonjs]

.NET Standard doesn't have an end-of-life, because it's just a list of types and members with no implementation.

.NET Framework {4.7.2, 4.8} and .NET Core {2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 3.0, 3.1} are runtimes which implement all of the types and members required by .NET Standard 2.0. Each of the individual runtimes has its own support story -- .NET Core 2.0 and 2.2 are both no longer in support, and .NET Core 3.0 only has another month or two before it's no longer in support.

I did also read that Standard versions are fixed/immutable so new APIs get added to new Standard versions

That's correct. .NET Standard versions are just editions of a spec... once they're published they're published, any later changes require a newer version of the spec/standard.

The analogy doesn't stretch to errata, since I don't think we've ever errata'd a .NET Standard build once it released 😄.

[pushkin-]

ok, that clears it up - thanks!