Since version 1.0, Django’s release numbering works as follows:
\nVersions are numbered in the form A.B or A.B.C.
A.B is the major version number. Each version will be mostly backwards\ncompatible with the previous release. Exceptions to this rule will be listed\nin the release notes. When B == 9, the next major release will be\nA+1.0. For example, Django 2.0 will follow Django 1.9. There won’t be\nanything special about “dot zero” releases.
C is the minor version number, which is incremented for bug and\nsecurity fixes. A new minor release will be 100% backwards-compatible with\nthe previous minor release. The only exception is when a security or data loss\nissue can’t be fixed without breaking backwards-compatibility. If this\nhappens, the release notes will provide detailed upgrade instructions.
Before a new major release, we’ll make alpha, beta, and release candidate\nreleases. These are of the form A.B alpha/beta/rc N, which means the\nNth alpha/beta/release candidate of version A.B.
In git, each Django release will have a tag indicating its version number,\nsigned with the Django release key. Additionally, each release series has its\nown branch, called stable/A.B.x, and bugfix/security releases will be\nissued from those branches.
For more information about how the Django project issues new releases for\nsecurity purposes, please see our security policies.
\nMajor releases (A.B, A.B+1, etc.) will happen roughly every nine months –\nsee release process, below for details. These releases will contain new\nfeatures, improvements to existing features, and such.
\nA major release may deprecate certain features from previous releases. If a\nfeature is deprecated in version A.B, it will continue to work in versions\nA.B and A.B+1 but raise warnings. It will be removed in version\nA.B+2.
So, for example, if we decided to start the deprecation of a function in\nDjango 1.7:
\nDjango 1.7 will contain a backwards-compatible replica of the function which\nwill raise a RemovedInDjango19Warning. This warning is silent by\ndefault; you can turn on display of these warnings with the -Wd option\nof Python.
Django 1.8 will still contain the backwards-compatible replica. This\nwarning becomes loud by default, and will likely be quite annoying.
Django 1.9 will remove the feature outright.
Minor releases (A.B.C, etc.) will be issued as needed, often to fix security\nissues.
\nThese releases will be 100% compatible with the associated major release,\nunless this is impossible for security reasons or to prevent data loss.\nSo the answer to “should I upgrade to the latest minor release?” will always\nbe “yes.”
\nAt any moment in time, Django’s developer team will support a set of releases to\nvarying levels. See the supported versions section of the download\npage for the current state of support for each version.
\nThe current development master will get new features and bug fixes\nrequiring major refactoring.
Patches applied to the master branch must also be applied to the last major\nrelease, to be released as the next minor release, when they fix critical\nproblems:
\nSecurity issues.
Data loss bugs.
Crashing bugs.
Major functionality bugs in newly-introduced features.
The rule of thumb is that fixes will be backported to the last major release\nfor bugs that would have prevented a release in the first place (release\nblockers).
\nSecurity fixes and data loss bugs will be applied to the current master, the\nlast two major releases, and the current LTS release.
Documentation fixes generally will be more freely backported to the last\nrelease branch. That’s because it’s highly advantageous to have the docs for\nthe last release be up-to-date and correct, and the risk of introducing\nregressions is much less of a concern.
As a concrete example, consider a moment in time halfway between the release of\nDjango 1.7 and 1.8. At this point in time:
\nFeatures will be added to development master, to be released as Django 1.8.
Critical bug fixes will be applied to the stable/1.7.x branch, and\nreleased as 1.7.1, 1.7.2, etc.
Security fixes and bug fixes for data loss issues will be applied to\nmaster and to the stable/1.7.x, stable/1.6.x, and\nstable/1.4.x (LTS) branches. They will trigger the release of 1.7.1,\n1.6.1, 1.4.1, etc.
Documentation fixes will be applied to master, and, if easily backported, to\nthe 1.7.x and 1.6.x branches.
Additionally, the Django team will occasionally designate certain releases\nto be “Long-term support” (LTS) releases. LTS releases will get security and\ndata loss fixes applied for a guaranteed period of time, typically 3+ years,\nregardless of the pace of releases afterwards.
\nSee the download page for the releases that have been designated for\nlong-term support.
\nDjango uses a time-based release schedule, with major (i.e. 1.8, 1.9, 2.0,\netc.) releases every nine months, or more, depending on features.
\nAfter each release, and after a suitable cooling-off period of a few weeks,\ncore developers will examine the landscape and announce a timeline for the\nnext release. Most releases will be scheduled in the 6-9 month range, but if\nwe have bigger features to develop we might schedule a longer period to\nallow for more ambitious work.
\nEach release cycle will be split into three periods, each lasting roughly\none-third of the cycle:
\nThe first phase of the release process will be devoted to figuring out what\nfeatures to include in the next version. This should include a good deal of\npreliminary work on those features – working code trumps grand design.
\nAt the end of part one, the core developers will propose a feature list for the\nupcoming release. This will be broken into:
\n“Must-have”: critical features that will delay the release if not finished
“Maybe” features: that will be pushed to the next release if not finished
“Not going to happen”: features explicitly deferred to a later release.
Anything that hasn’t got at least some work done by the end of the first third\nisn’t eligible for the next release; a design alone isn’t sufficient.
\nThe second third of the release schedule is the “heads-down” working period.\nUsing the roadmap produced at the end of phase one, we’ll all work very hard to\nget everything on it done.
\nLonger release schedules will likely spend more than a third of the time in this\nphase.
\nAt the end of phase two, any unfinished “maybe” features will be postponed until\nthe next release. Though it shouldn’t happen, any “must-have” features will\nextend phase two, and thus postpone the final release.
\nPhase two will culminate with an alpha release. At this point, the\nstable/A.B.x branch will be forked from master.
The last third of a release cycle is spent fixing bugs – no new features will\nbe accepted during this time. We’ll try to release a beta release after one\nmonth and a release candidate after two months.
\nThe release candidate marks the string freeze, and it happens at least two\nweeks before the final release. After this point, new translatable strings\nmust not be added.
\nDuring this phase, committers will be more and more conservative with\nbackports, to avoid introducing regressions. After the release candidate, only\nrelease blockers and documentation fixes should be backported.
\nIn parallel to this phase, master can receive new features, to be released\nin the A.B+1 cycle.
After a major release (e.g. A.B), the previous release will go into bugfix\nmode.
\nThe branch for the previous major release (e.g. stable/A.B-1.x) will include\nbugfixes. Critical bugs fixed on master must also be fixed on the bugfix\nbranch; this means that commits need to cleanly separate bug fixes from feature\nadditions. The developer who commits a fix to master will be responsible for\nalso applying the fix to the current bugfix branch.