Proposed new SW Support and Release Versioning Policy
With the release of Kea 1.6 we plan to change the release model. We need to update our software support and versioning policy accordingly. I will also publish a short blog or email to bind-users or both on the topic, once we are all clear on what the changes are.
Below is proposed text for the new Software Support and Version Numbering policy (https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-00896) for review. It is intended to be as much like the BIND statement as applicable.
One thing we have not addressed - it says we won't add new features to existing stable versions, but what about new hook libraries? IMHO that is a grey area. If a customer wanted us to create a new hook library, I am assuming we probably would create it on/with the current stable version, not the development version.
We might need some sort of general statement about hook libraries, versioning and support.
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Kea
With the release of Kea 1.6.0, we are changing our release model for Kea. We will have two types of major Kea versions: Development and Stable. At any given time, we should have at least two options available, one or more Stable and one Development release.
Development versions We release development versions off of the current working (master) branch. These will be the odd-numbered minor versions, starting from Kea 1.7.0.
There is no fixed schedule to development releases; new versions will be made available as new features or changes become ready for field testing. Maintenance releases on development branches will introduce new and updated features and may not be backward-compatible with their immediate predecessor. Development versions of Kea are suitable for those interested in experimenting with and providing feedback to ISC, but are not recommended for production use. There will be no alpha/beta/release candidate versions of development versions, and it may sometimes happen that a recently-released minor version is superseded very quickly in order to address a flaw. We may not issue patch releases for development versions with security bugs, at our discretion.
Development versions will be maintained until the next Stable version is created, at which time we will begin a new development branch (with the next odd number). We estimate development versions will mature into stable versions in less than a year, but this is a prediction, not a promise.
Stable versions Beginning with Kea 1.6, we plan stabilize all the even-numbered minor versions for production use – for example, Kea 1.6 and Kea 1.8 will be stable versions. Each of these branches will have a series of maintenance releases, such as Kea 1.6.1, 1.6.2, etc. Maintenance releases on a Stable version will include bug fixes only, to maximize stability.
Stable versions of Kea are fully supported for 6 months after the next stable version is released. This means you should have ample time to migrate to a new stable version before the older one is EOL. We do not yet have ‘Extended Support’ versions of Kea. We still have a very high rate of new feature development and are not yet ready for a very long-lived stable branch. We expect to be able to update the ISC Kea packages the same day we post the tarballs.
- Kea 1.3 went to EOL in December 2018
- Kea 1.4 will be supported until August 2019 (or until we release Kea 1.6)
- Kea 1.5 will be supported until we release Kea 1.8.
- Kea 1.6 will be a stable version, supported for 6 months after we release Kea 1.8, or until we release Kea 2.0, whichever is sooner.
- Kea 1.7 will be a development version supported until we release Kea 1.9
- Kea 1.8 will be the next stable version after 1.6
——————— OLD Policy (Currently published policy) https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-00896
All Kea releases to date include new features and are considered development releases. We will continue doing this to keep up with the pace of new development until further notice. Currently, we are issuing updates every 4-6 months, and there is no such thing as a maintenance-only release. ISC offers support for the current, and immediate prior, regularly-released versions of Kea. As the product matures, we plan on supporting both maintenance and development branches.
- Kea 1.3 went to EOL in December 2018
- Kea 1.4 will be supported until July 2019 (or until we release Kea 1.6)
- Kea 1.5 will be supported until December 2019 (or until we release Kea 1.7)
Other General Policy Guidelines
- Standard support terms do not apply to developmental releases, the Supported Preview edition, or alpha, beta, and Release Candidates (RCs). These are typically shorter-lived releases.
- We reserve the right to change our version numbering for Kea.
- We also reserve the right, based on these changes, to include some minor features in point releases (e.g. 9.8.1) for BIND 9 and ISC DHCP.