Release maintenance policy#

Solution developers who build and deploy applications on top of SAF need to understand how long a given release is maintained and what is expected of them regarding upgrades. This page defines the official maintenance policy.

Policy rules#

Rule 1: Fixes land only on the latest minor release#

Within a maintained major branch, bug and vulnerability fixes are delivered only on top of the latest minor release, following the version history forward.

Important

SAF does not backport patches to older minor or patch releases within the same major version. If you need a fix, you must upgrade to the latest minor.

The following diagram illustrates this rule for version 1.x, where 1.40 is the latest minor:

  • A bug is found in 1.39.10—the fix lands in 1.40.6, not 1.39.11. You must upgrade to 1.40.6.

  • A bug is found in 1.38.0—the fix lands in 1.40.7, not 1.38.1. You must upgrade to 1.40.7.

  • A bug is found in 1.40.5—the fix lands in 1.40.8. You upgrade to 1.40.8.

SAF release maintenance policy diagram showing that bugs found in any minor are fixed only in the latest minor release

Rule 2: major version support window (6 months)#

When a breaking change occurs, a new major version is released. The previous major version (n-1) continues to receive bug and vulnerability fixes for 6 months after the new major is published.

After the 6-month window, the former major branch reaches end-of-life (EOL) and no further patches are provided. You must migrate to the latest major version.

Warning

Only the latest minor release within the previous major receives fixes during the 6-month maintenance window. Older minors within that major are not patched.

The following diagram illustrates this rule. When version 2.0 is released, the 1.x branch enters a 6-month maintenance window. During that window, only the latest 1.40.x patch receives fixes. Once the 6 months elapse, 1.x reaches EOL and is no longer supported—all users must migrate to 2.x.

SAF release maintenance policy diagram showing the 6-month maintenance window for the previous major version after a breaking change

Rule 3: Strict semantic versioning#

SAF maintainers strictly follows Semantic Versioning (SemVer):

  • Patch (x.y.Z): Bug fixes and vulnerability patches only. No behavioral changes.

  • Minor (x.Y.0): New features and additive changes. Fully backward compatible.

  • Major (X.0.0): Breaking changes. A migration guide is provided.

This guarantees that upgrading within a major version is safe and non-breaking.