FOLIO Release Numbering Policy

Owned by Mike Gorrell
Last updated: Sep 10, 2020
2 min read

Full Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QmX-Jl5wT4GQgW7uFk08FPeAX_6v6zzvXX8ZQT5VG4g/edit#slide=id.p1


(note slides reflect the prior quarterly release cycle)

Types of Releases:

  1. There is an LTS - Long Term Support Release that has a specific lifespan. On its release it will include all released features and fixes up to that point. The lifespan in the example above and in the presentation is a year - note that this has not been definitively set (still open).
  2. There will be support for multiple (2) LTS Releases as described below.
  3. There are Maintenance Releases at a higher frequency than LTS releases. These will include new functionality.
  4. There will not be a maintenance release that coincides with an LTS Release.
  5. If issues are found in already released code, they will be fixed and released in a maintenance release for either the LTS Release or the next Maintenance Release as described below
    1. Functional issues
      1. P1 Functional issues will trigger a maintenance release in the LTS
      2. P2 Functional issues will be fixed in the next maintenance release (but no previous releases, and not in the current LTS)
    2. Security Issues
      1. P1 Security issues will trigger a maintenance release in the current LTS and the previous LTS (if applicable) as well as the current Maintenance release.
      2. P2 Security issues will trigger a maintenance release in the current LTS (but not previous) as well as the current Maintenance release.

Release Numbering:

  • LTS Release numbering: YYYY-MM.S-LTS, where:
    • YYYY = Year
    • MM = Month
    • S = sequence/number of releases with the YYYY-MM tag
    • LTS = Long Term Support release
  • Quarterly Release numbering: YYYY-N.S, where:
    • YYYY = Year
    • N = The Nth maintenance release that year (1,2,3, etc.)
    • S = sequence/number of Hotfix releases with the YYYY-N tag
      • The initial maintenance release will have a sequence number of 0 - i.e. 2020-3.0
  • Flower names
    • When necessary/helpful flower names can be appended to the release number, i.e. 2020-3.0 (Honeysuckle)

Open Items:

  • The project has not decided when the first LTS release will be. Until then the project is tracking live deployments and trying to manage porting fixes to previous releases that are in live use - AND  attempting to move live deployments to the latest quarterly release as quickly as practical.
  • The length of the LTS's has not been formally established, but 1 year is likely to be chosen for the first LTS.