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doc: refactor of Release README
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Beth Griggs authored and BethGriggs committed Mar 5, 2020
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Expand Up @@ -17,11 +17,21 @@ The Release schedule is available also as a [JSON][] file.

### Release Phases

There are three phases that a Node.js release can be in: 'Current', 'Active Long-term Support', and 'Maintenance'. Odd-numbered release lines are not promoted to LTS - they will not go through the 'Active LTS' or 'Maintenance' phases.

* Current - Should incorporate most of the non-major (non-breaking) PRs that land on `nodejs/node` master branch.
* Active LTS - New features, bug fixes, and updates that have been audited by the LTS team and have been determined to be appropriate and stable for the release line.
* Maintenance - Critical bug fixes and security updates. New features may be added at the discretion of the LTS team - typically only in cases where the new feature supports migration to later release lines.
There are three phases that a Node.js release can be in: 'Current', 'Active
Long Term Support', and 'Maintenance'. Odd-numbered release lines are not
promoted to LTS - they will not go through the 'Active LTS' or 'Maintenance'
phases.

* Current - Should incorporate most of the non-major (non-breaking)
changes that land on `nodejs/node` master branch.
* Active LTS - New features, bug fixes, and updates that have been audited by
the LTS team and have been determined to be appropriate and stable for the
release line. Semver major changes required for critical security and bug fixes
may lead to *semver-major* changes landing within an LTS stream, such situations will be
rare and will land as *semver-minor* in the LTS release line.
* Maintenance - Critical bug fixes and security updates. New features may be
added at the discretion of the LTS team - typically only in cases where
the new feature supports migration to later release lines.

### End-of-Life Releases

Expand All @@ -34,7 +44,7 @@ There are three phases that a Node.js release can be in: 'Current', 'Active Long
| [6.x][] | **End-of-Life** | [Boron][] | 2016-04-26 | 2016-10-18 | 2018-04-30 | 2019-04-30 |
| [7.x][] | **End-of-Life** | | 2016-10-25 | - | | 2017-06-30 |
| [8.x][] | **End-of-Life** | [Carbon][]| 2017-05-30 | 2017-10-31 | 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 |
| [9.x] | **End-of-Life** | | 2017-10-01 | - | | 2018-06-30 |
| [9.x][] | **End-of-Life** | | 2017-10-01 | - | | 2018-06-30 |
| [11.x][] | **End-of-Life** | | 2018-10-23 | - | | 2019-06-01 |


Expand All @@ -49,7 +59,7 @@ Its responsibilities are:
* Define the release process.
* Define the content of releases.
* Generate and create releases.
* Test Releases
* Test Releases.
* Manage the LTS and Current branches including backporting changes to
these branches.
* Define the policy for what gets backported to release streams.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -79,71 +89,28 @@ Working Group.
## Release Plan

New semver-major releases of Node.js are cut from `master` every six months.
New even-numbered versions (e.g. v6, v8, v10, etc) are cut in April. New
odd-numbered versions (e.g. v5, v7, v9) are cut in October.
New even-numbered versions are cut in April and odd-numbered versions are cut
in October.

In coordination with a new *odd-numbered* major release being cut, the
previous *even-numbered* major version will transition to the Long Term Support
plan. The transition to Long Term Support can happen either before or after
the new major version is cut in a Semver-Minor release following
[the process documented below](#marking-a-release-line-as-lts).

Every major version covered by the LTS plan will be actively maintained for a
period of 12 months from the date it enters LTS coverage. Following those 12
months of active support, the major version will transition into "maintenance"
mode for 18 additional months. Prior to Node.js 12 the active period was 18
months and the maintenance period 12 months.

The exact date that a release stream will be moved to LTS, moved between LTS
modes, or deprecated will be chosen no later than the first day of the month.
If it is to be changed, it will be done with no less than 14 days notice.

Given this schedule, there will be no more than two active LTS releases at any
given time, overlapping for a maximum period of six months.

Once a major version enters LTS coverage, new features (semver-minor) may only
be landed with consent of the Release working group. No semver-major
changes other than those required for critical security fixes may be landed.

Changes in an LTS-covered major version are limited to:

1. Bug fixes.
2. Security updates.
3. Non-semver-major npm updates.
4. Relevant documentation updates.
5. Certain performance improvements where the risk of breaking existing
applications is minimal.
6. Changes that introduce large amount of code churn where the risk of breaking
existing applications is low and where the change in question may
significantly ease the ability to backport future changes due to the
reduction in diff noise.

Generally changes are expected to live in a *Current* release for at least 2
weeks before being backported. It is possible for a commit to land earlier at
the discretion of the Release working group and the maintainers of the LTS branches.

Once a release moves into Maintenance mode, only ***critical*** bugs,
***critical*** security fixes, documentation updates, and updates to ensure
consistency and usability of the N-API across LTS releases will be permitted.
Unless a change is ***urgent*** it will be planned into a release once per
quarter. Such releases will only be made when necessary.
previous *even-numbered* major version will transition to Long Term Support.
The transition to Long Term Support can happen either before or after the new
major version is cut in a Semver-Minor release.

Note that while it is possible that critical security and bug fixes may lead to
*semver-major* changes landing within an LTS stream, such situations will be
rare and will land as *semver-minor* bumps in the LTS covered version.
Every even (LTS) major version will be actively maintained for 12 months from
the date it enters LTS coverage. Following those 12 months of active support,
the major version will transition into "maintenance" mode for 18 months. Prior
to Node.js 12 the active period was 18 months and the maintenance period 12
months. See [Releases Phases](#release-phases) for details of which changes
are expected to land during each release phase.

Updates to ensure consistency and usability of the N-API across LTS releases
are allowed as it is important to ensure that N-API native modules can be used
across LTS versions in order to support adoption.
The exact date that a release will be moved to LTS, moved between LTS modes,
or deprecated will be chosen no later than the first day of the month. If it
is to be changed, it will be done with no less than 14 days notice.

All LTS releases will be assigned a codename. A list of expected upcoming
codenames is available in [CODENAMES.md](./CODENAMES.md).

An odd-numbered major release will cease to be actively updated when the subsequent
even-numbered major release is cut. Depending on circumstances the project may
decide to provide an update to the odd-numbered release after the cutoff. However,
there is no guarantee that any release will be made.

### LTS Staging Branches

Every LTS major version has two branches in the GitHub repository: a release
Expand All @@ -160,6 +127,10 @@ commits are backported for a future Node.js v4 release, those must come in the
form of pull requests opened against the `v4.x-staging` branch. **Commits are
only landed in the `v4.x` branch when a new `v4.x` release is being prepared.**

Generally, changes are expected to live in a *Current* release for at least 2
weeks before being backported. It is possible for a commit to land earlier at
the discretion of the Release working group.

[Argon]: https://nodejs.org/download/release/latest-argon/
[Boron]: https://nodejs.org/download/release/latest-boron/
[Carbon]: https://nodejs.org/download/release/latest-carbon/
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