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10 <div class="blog-index">
13 <h2>Release Strategy</h2>
15 First issued 23rd December 2014<br/>
16 Last modified 3rd March 2016
20 <div class="entry-content">
23 As of release 1.0.0 the OpenSSL versioning scheme was improved
24 to better meet developers' and vendors' expectations. Letter
25 releases, such as 1.0.1a, exclusively contain bug and security
26 fixes and no new features. Minor releases that change the
27 last digit, e.g. 1.0.1 vs. 1.0.2, can and are likely to
28 contain new features, but in a way that does not break binary
29 compatibility. This means that an application compiled and
30 dynamically linked with 1.0.0 does not need to be recompiled
31 when the shared library is updated to 1.0.2. It should be
32 noted that some features are transparent to the application
33 such as the maximum negotiated TLS version and cipher suites,
34 performance improvements and so on. There is no need to
35 recompile applications to benefit from these features.</p>
37 <p>Binary compatibility also allows other possibilities. For
38 example, consider an application that wishes to utilize
39 a new cipher provided in a specific 1.0.x release, but it
40 is also desirable to maintain the application in a 1.0.0
41 context. Customarily this would be resolved at compile time
42 resulting in two binary packages targeting different OpenSSL
43 versions. However, depending on the feature, it might be
44 possible to check for its availability at run-time, thus cutting
45 down on the maintenance of multiple binary packages. Admittedly
46 it takes a certain discipline and some extra coding, but we
47 would like to encourage such practice. This is because we
48 want to see later releases being adopted faster, because new
49 features can improve security.</p>
51 <p>With regards to current and future releases the OpenSSL
52 project has adopted the following policy:</p>
55 <li>Version 1.1.0 will be supported until 2018-04-30.</li>
56 <li>Version 1.0.2 will be supported until 2019-12-31 (LTS).</li>
57 <li>Support for version 1.0.1 will cease on 2016-12-31. No
58 further releases of 1.0.1 will be made after that date.
59 Security fixes only will be applied to 1.0.1 until then.</li>
60 <li>Version 1.0.0 is no longer supported.</li>
61 <li>Version 0.9.8 is no longer supported.</li>
64 <p>We may designate a release as a Long Term Support (LTS)
65 release. LTS releases will be supported for at least five years
66 and we will specify one at least every four years. Non-LTS
67 releases will be supported for at least two years.</p>
69 <p>As implied by the above paragraphs, during the final year
70 of support, we do not commit to anything other than security
71 fixes. Before that, bug and security fixes will be applied
74 <p>At this time, we are not planning a 1.0.3 release.</p>
76 <p>Version 1.1.0 will (moderately) break source compatibility
77 (for example we will make most structures opaque etc). Our current plans
78 for the release timetable are:</p>
81 <li>10th December 2015, alpha release 1</li>
82 <li>14th January 2016, alpha release 2</li>
83 <li>11th February 2016, alpha release 3</li>
84 <li>10th March 2016, 1.1.0 beta 1 release</li>
85 <li>14th April 2016, 1.1.0 beta 2 release</li>
86 <li>12th May 2016, 1.1.0 public release</li>
89 <p>An alpha release means:</p>
92 <li>Not (necessarily) feature complete</li>
93 <li>Not necessarily all new APIs in place yet</li>
96 <p>A beta release means:</p>
99 <li>Feature complete/Feature freeze</li>
100 <li>Bug fixes and cleanup</li>
103 <p>Beta 2 release means:</p>
106 <li>Opaque work complete</li>
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