Release Cycle
Zope 3's release cycle is based on a fixed schedule: we provide a new major (3.X) release in May and November.
Bugfixes and patches (3.X.Y) are released on a per-need basis for all released major versions that are actively maintained. At least 2 stable releases are maintained simultaneously.
Pre-release packages for major releases (3.X)
We provide packages of pre-release versions to allow community-wide testing on work-in-progress to gather feedback for an upcoming release.
Major releases go through an (at least) 8 week release period with the following maturity levels:
- alpha
On the first day of the 8 week release period, an alpha release is provided. It is named Zope3-3.X.0a1 and tagged from the trunk. No release branch is created, yet, and developers can continue to commit changes as usual to the trunk.
If no problems arise, the alpha period takes two weeks (14 days). If problems arise that do not allow to feature-freeze the trunk after 14 days, a new alpha release is made. Consecutive alpha periods take only 7 days.
The goal of the alpha is to allow application developers to preview new features. It does not require the software that we pull in via svn:externals to be released.
- beta
A beta is released after a successful alpha period (at least 14 days). Therefore a release branch (/branches/3.X) is created from the trunk and a tag is made from that branch. No feature changes are allowed to the branch as the branch should be considered in 'maintenance mode' now.
Any software that is pulled in via an svn:external has to be pulled in from a release tag.
The released package will be called Zope-3.X.0b1.
If no problems arise, the beta period takes four weeks (28 days). If problems arise that do not allow to create a release candidate, another beta release is made. Consecutive beta periods take only 14 days.
- release candidate
A release candidate is created after a successful beta period (at least 28 days). A tag is created from the release branch.
The released package will be call Zope-3.X.0rc1.
If no problems arise, the release candidate takes two weeks (14 days). If problems airse that do not allow to use the release candidate for a final release, another release candidate is made. Consecutive release candidate periods take only 7 days.
- final release
After a successful release candidate period, the last release candidate tag is copied to the release tag.
The released package will be called Zope-3.X.0.
Remember: The must not be a difference between the last release candidate and the release itself.
Pre-release packages for minor releases (3.X.Y)
XXX This should be enhanced.
Minor releases basically do not use the alpha period and have much shorter release times. They might also omit the beta period depending on the severity and scope of the release.